PULL BACK THE CABERNET-COLORED ROPE for a peek at everything that goes into the D.H. Lescombes Family Vineyards winemaking operation. Offered from spring to fall, the VIP tours start in Las Cruces or Deming with a two-hour trip to the 240-acre farm east of Lordsburg. During harvest, which lasts through September, visitors can sample grapes off the vine, enjoy lunch and a wine pairing, and view founder Hervé Lescombes’s house and custom-built wine cellar. “They’ll usually open a few bottles from the cellar,” says Daniel Gonzales, D.H. Lescombes creative content manager. “Those wines are at least 10 years old.”
The Deming site also features a behind-the-scenes look at the Lescombes tasting room, fermentation tanks, and bottling lines, and a special tasting of wine from an oak barrel that’s partway through aging. The full day wraps with a round of wine sampling and snacks in the tasting room before returning to Las Cruces. “It’s a neat little preview into the winemaking process,” Gonzales says.
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