Lescombes partners with Santa Ana Pueblo for Tamaya Vineyard grapes
Santa Ana Pueblo and Lescombes locked in a five-year grape deal that could keep more wine dollars in central New Mexico. The 26-acre Tamaya Vineyard will feed chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier.
Santa Ana Pueblo and Lescombes Family Vineyards have lined up a five-year partnership that starts with the 2026 harvest and runs through October 2031, tying one of central New Mexico’s best-known vineyard sites to the state’s largest winery. The agreement centers on the Pueblo’s 26-acre Tamaya Vineyard and is built around chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, a mix that keeps grapes grown on tribal land moving into New Mexico wine production rather than out of the region.
For Bernalillo County, the deal matters because it strengthens the local story behind a bottle. Lescombes said the arrangement gives Santa Ana Pueblo a stable and reliable market for its fruit while expanding its own wine portfolio, and the company has also signaled plans for a dedicated wine for the Pueblo of Santa Ana. With winery and bistro locations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Alamogordo and Deming, Lescombes already has a sales and hospitality footprint that can put Tamaya grapes in front of diners, visitors and retail customers across the state.
The partnership also carries a clear economic-development message for the Pueblo itself. Santa Ana Pueblo Governor Myron Armijo said the agreement supports the future of New Mexico agriculture, viticulture and economic development while honoring the Pueblo’s cultural traditions and agricultural values. The Pueblo says its agricultural enterprise is meant to create economic opportunities for the Tamaya Indian Reservation, and Tamaya Ventures, the Pueblo’s wholly owned § 17 corporation, says its purpose is to provide economic opportunity, resources and diversification for the community.
The new arrangement builds on years of vineyard work at Santa Ana Pueblo. Tamaya Vineyard has long had a partnership history with Gruet Winery, and earlier reporting said the Pueblo had planted about 30 acres of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier after a three-year grant process. By 2024, 28 acres of grapes on Santa Ana Pueblo were being harvested for wine production. Wine industry coverage has also described the vineyard as being managed as sustainably and organically as possible, reinforcing its role as part of a broader push for tribal self-sufficiency.
In Sandoval County, just north of Bernalillo and along the Rio Grande, the new Lescombes deal gives Tamaya another outlet and gives New Mexico wine another claim to being local from the vine onward. In a market crowded with out-of-state labels, that kind of homegrown identity could become as important as the harvest itself.
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