Description: Between Las Vegas and Albuquerque on Interstate 25 lies New Mexico’s capital city, Santa Fe. As one of the oldest cities in the US, it has very important historical and culture significance not only to New Mexico, but the rest of the country as well. Everywhere you go in the city, you are exposed to the rich history dating back centuries. There are important historical structures such as San Miguel Chapel, which is the oldest standing church structure in the US, was originally built in 1610. The Palace of the Governors is the country’s oldest continuously occupied public building. It was originally built by the Spanish as the seat of government in 1610. The New Mexico Museum of History now chronicles the history of New Mexico through exhibits. The Palace of the Governors is located in Santa Fe Plaza, which has been the heart of downtown for over four centuries. The plaza is filled with specialty shops, clothing stores, restaurants, and scattered amongst it all are the gems of Santa Fe’s history. The plaza can get very crowded, so I would advise caution when driving around. The plaza is worth the visit and it is best experienced on foot. Even if you are not a shopaholic, this is a great place to pick up some genuine Native American artwork and handcrafted items.
Santa Fe is not only known for its history, but also for being a center for the arts. There are a huge number of artists and galleries in Santa Fe. The most well known artist, Georgia O’Keeffe, has a museum dedicated to showcasing her works. You could literally spend a week or more visiting art museums and galleries. However, we only had a couple of days in Santa Fe so we skipped most of the art and cultural sites and focused more on the historical areas.
After visiting the Palace of the Governors and Santa Fe Plaza, I stopped off at the New Mexico State Capitol. This capitol building is unique from the other states’ capitols in that it is entirely rounded. It is nicknamed the Roundhouse. While the Palace of the Governors may be the oldest capitol building in the US, the "Roundhouse" is the third newest capitol, built in 1966. Santa Fe’s attraction to art is evident in the design of the building. Looking down on the capitol from above, the building was designed to resemble the Zia Sun Symbol, the same symbol on the New Mexico state flag.
The New Mexico State Capitol has four floors. The second floor is the ground floor and visitors may access all of the floors except for the first floor which contains the House and Senate chambers. As I walked inside, I didn’t notice any security guards or metal detectors. I walked right inside and began roaming the floors. From past experience visiting other state capitols, it was nice to be able to walk right inside without the hassle of being screened. However, looking back on it now, with how easy it was to enter the capitol, I don’t know if it is a good or bad thing that there isn’t security.
Although the first floor is closed to the public, you can still see the House and Senate chambers from the balcony located on the second floor. The other two floors are mainly offices for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and other legislative leaders. Although I skipped out on the art tour of Santa Fe, my visit to the capitol still allowed me to experience and admire the artistic abilities of New Mexico’s artists. The Capitol Art Foundation houses many different styles of artwork from paintings, sculptures, and furniture throughout the public floors of the capitol as a way to promote the arts and history of the New Mexico people.
With only a few days in Santa Fe, we decided to take a half day trip to Los Alamos. The city’s claim to fame was the creation of the atomic bomb used to drop on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which came to be known as the Manhattan Project. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is still in operation although with a different focus. It conducts research in national security, medicine, renewable energy, and many others. The closest I could get was as I drove by the front gate along the highway.
My intention of going to Los Alamos was to visit Bandelier National Monument. It is a 33,000 acre national park that preserves the homes of the Pueblo people. Our visit to the park did not go as planned. The Las Conchas wildfire threatened Los Alamos and it severely destroyed a majority of the Bandelier National Monument. After it was extinguished, it burned over 150,000 acres including over sixty percent of the monument land. It was the largest wildfire in New Mexico history as well as the US until the next year when the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire which also started in New Mexico surpassed it. The fire has now led to flash floods especially in the most visited part of the park, the Frijoles Canyon. The fire required a mandatory shuttle bus ride from the town of White Rock, about ten miles away from Los Alamos. Because of the children and not having access to a car and most parts of the park, we decided to forgo visiting until a later time. As of this writing, the park still has many alerts in effect and a shuttle bus is still required. Be sure to check the conditions and alerts before making a visit.
All was not lost by not being able to visit Bandelier National Monument. We did our next best thing, wine tasting. We visited the Don Quixote Distillery and Winery located about twenty minutes south of Los Alamos. We input the address into our GPS, 236 Rio Bravo Los Alamos, NM. We passed the distillery twice and I figured the GPS was wrong because I was in a residential neighborhood. I was looking for some commercial building. Come to find out we were in the right place. The distillery is located in the owners’ house and when I slowed down in front of the address, I noticed the sign for Don Quixote Distillery and Winery.
We pulled up in the driveway and entered the tasting room. A couple of minutes later, the owner, Ron Dolin, emerged and gave us a sampling of their many different wines. They have four different wine lines incorporating the history of Los Alamos and Santa Fe. Their Manhattan Project line consist of fruity unaged wines and the City Different line which takes its name from Santa Fe’s nickname are dry barrel aged wines. The Don Quixote Emotion wines are the fruity wines such as the Apple Ice wine, Cherry Sherry, Rose Petal, and Plum Wine. Their private label line consists of two wines, a white and a red. My wife, who loves red wines, after one sip, immediately wanted their Red River Red, which was produced for the ski resort community of Red River, New Mexico.
They not only make wines, but spirits as well including vodka, bourbon, gin, and brandy. I was intrigued by their Blue Corn vodka. While I was talking with Ron, he told us that he is an engineer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and his wife, Olha, who is from the Ukraine, is the brains behind their operation. Although I was not able to meet her, he told us that she grew up in a family of distillers and learned the secrets of making vodka. Who better to know how to make vodka then someone from the former Soviet Union? They were able to take their knowledge of vodka distillation and combine it with blue corn, which is the sweetest of the four different corns and widely popular in New Mexico. I sampled the blue corn vodka and it goes down so smooth. It is truly a spirit that you can drink straight up.
He also told us why their wines and spirits are unique from many others. Because of their high altitude, 7000 feet above sea level in the Jemez Mountains, alcohol boils at 180 degrees instead of 212 degrees. The lower temperatures allow the spirits to cook off eliminating the burnt smell and taste found in most spirits. Ron also designs and builds every still used at their distillery. The wines and spirits were unique and tasted great.
We decided to buy a bottle of wine and vodka. The only problem is that you cannot buy it there. It has to be shipped. Because of New Mexico liquor laws, they are not allowed to sell them on site. He is hoping to change that in the future. All of their wines and spirits can be bought online at www.dqdistillery.com. They can ship to every state except Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, and Massachusetts and to thirty-one different countries. If you get a chance, this is worth a stop or at the very least, order a bottle to try.
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