front of the house
Arroyo Vino
KNOWING WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT By Ellen Zachos • Photos by Stephanie Cameron
Left to right: Arroyo Vino wine shop; David Enright and Brian Bargsten at Arroyo Vino stock some eight hundred wines.
You’re not going to stumble upon Arroyo Vino casually, but more and more people make the drive out to Las Campanas to visit this special place. Just northwest of Santa Fe, it’s well worth the trip. Arroyo Vino takes wine seriously. They won’t sell something because it’s a novelty; there’s no such thing as touting a wine just because it’s local. Founded in 2011, the wine shop at Arroyo Vino is less well known than the restaurant of the same name, which opened in 2013, right next door. While the restaurant has quickly gained a welldeserved reputation for its creative menu and expansive wine list, the wine shop is a well-kept secret, frequented mostly by residents of Las Campanas west of Santa Fe. That should change. Brian Bargsten is the sommelier, co-owner, and managing partner at Arroyo Vino. I was especially interested in Bargsten’s take on local wines, and considering the restaurant’s local and seasonal bent, I fig6
edible Santa Fe | EARLY WINTER 2015
ured I’d find several to choose from. In fact, there was only one on the shelves: a Gruet chardonnay. Noting my surprise, Bargsten explained that he wasn’t opposed to carrying New Mexico wines, but it isn’t something his customers ask for. “There’s no reason New Mexico can’t produce great wines,” Bargsten said. In fact, he’d discussed the subject with a colleague just the day before. The climate is appropriate, but Bargsten suspects it’s a matter of finding people with the necessary knowledge and bankroll to make serious wines. In the kitchen, the approach is somewhat different. There, local ingredients are used whenever that makes sense from a quality and economic point of view. In 2015, their garden was greatly improved, with attention paid to composting kitchen waste, drip irrigation, and raising unusual crops like squash blossoms and a full range of flavorful