Jul. 6—As Doug Diefenthaler was perusing a course catalog during his senior year of college, viticulture and enology caught his eye.
The classes were Diefenthaler’s pipeline to becoming co-founder of VARA Winery and Distillery, which has tasting rooms in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and distributes its products across the state and California.
Diefenthaler left the Midwest after graduating to work for a Colorado fine wine wholesale company as a warehouse worker. He says management there liked his resume and attitude, despite little experience out of college, and wanted him to be around for when they expanded their sales force.
Three months in, Diefenthaler moved to a position building displays for retail stores. Not long after, the company added a role dedicated to selling wine in southern Colorado — and they wanted him to fill it.
Diefenthaler continued to work in the wine industry across New Mexico, California and Missouri before moving to Albuquerque and staying for good in 1989. Here, he says, he offered his skills to a small distributor who needed help.
By the end of 2013, Diefenthaler started helping set up a winery business in New Mexico, which would eventually become VARA. He says he was concerned about the ability to make world-class table wine in the state — but the state’s history in winemaking would help.
“We’re the first. We are the birthplace of the American wine experience, period. We’re where it started. We gave it to California 140 years after we did it,” Diefenthaler says, speaking of New Mexico. “I said to my partners for VARA, ‘This is the angle.'”
VARA opened its first tasting room in 2018, and a year later, the winery was “going nuts” building the brand and looking toward the future, Diefenthaler says.
By 2022, VARA was struggling with inventory issues — a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But an investment from a New Mexican family helped keep the business alive. Diefenthaler says without that financing, they would’ve had to pull the plug.
Now, the company is continuing to pick up the pieces and find its footing again. Diefenthaler says more out-of-state distributors are to come.
“You can’t just be for New Mexico,” Diefenthaler says.
What’s your favorite thing about the wine industry?
It’s just ever-changing. Every bottle you open is a new experience; it’s a warm handshake most of the time. It’s learning and exploring. I got an (agricultural economics) degree in 1978. If I felt like I could stop learning then, I wouldn’t have done anything. I’m still learning about things today, and that keeps you fresh and astute and respectful of what it all is.
What about VARA makes you proud?
It makes me proud when, whether I pour it for them or not, somebody opens a bottle of VARA and they go, “Wow, this is good. Why don’t I know about this? What is this? Where did it come from?” That just floats my boat.
What sets VARA apart from other wineries?
What sets us apart, I think, (is) it’s a brave thing to do, what VARA is doing.
What obstacles have you had to overcome?
I got to Aspen and Vail (Colorado) when I was 23. (Residents) weren’t at all accustomed to a wine expert knocking on their door that was 23 years old in those days. I got some looks, I got a real keen insult or two just out of stereotyping. … Within six months, I had completely rewritten the whole wine list in that account. I took those kinds of things as challenges and said, “You know what? I’ll be back.” And I was — and I improved their business.
Who inspires you?
I’m inspired by the guy next door, or I’m inspired by a sports figure. Someone who has an obstacle, someone who has some disbelief pointed to them, (but) they persevere and they get through it. Not only do they get through it, but they put a little exclamation point on it just for good measure.
What do you do in your free time?
I love to cook. Starting in Aspen and Vail, most of the people I did business with were owner-chefs. … They were busy in the kitchen; they said, “Come on back here. Keep talking.” So I said, “You know what would be good with that? Here, try this.”
I would watch them make something (and) I’d say, “What are you doing? How do you do that?” So they’d slow down. They’d start wanting to be my teacher in the kitchen. Over 20 years, I got to be pretty good at it. I do all the cooking around here.
What’s the best part about your job?
Well, you get to drink at work. That’s kind of a snide, little comment (but) no, it’s your profession. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s because you haven’t been tasting. And there’s a difference between tasting and drinking, obviously. We smell, taste and spit. … It’s been my life. If I didn’t like this, I would have stopped a long time ago because it’s very hard work and it’s challenging.