Now in its 34th year, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is a beloved Santa Fe institution. It brings together 90 wineries, 70-plus restaurants, some of Santa Fe’s finest chefs, and thousands of very hungry – and thirsty – guests who come for everything from tastings and seminars to cooking demonstrations and crowd-pleasers like Chile Friday, Rosé All Day, and the Grand Tasting. We pay homage to this fall fixture with a look at six of the people who will make this year’s festival one you’ll never forget.
The Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Team
Mary Hallahan, Executive Director, Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
Some careers follow a straight line; others grow more organically. Mary Hallahan, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, has taken the latter road. Summers spent working at the Tanglewood Festival in the Berkshires seeded her interest in events and hospitality. “Every time I came back, I came back with a different perspective and experience,” she says. With each subsequent job she says, “I picked up different skills and different interests. I started to think about what the hospitality community was like.”
It’s that love of food, wine, and people that fuelled her years at the Nantucket Wine & Food Festival and led her to SFWCF. It’s the diversity of her skillset – a rare combination of right brain and left – that makes her a natural for the role. “There isn’t a piece of it that I don’t thoroughly enjoy. Everything brings me joy.” Born and raised in the northeast, Santa Fe was an unknown when she arrived four years ago, but it didn’t take long before she was hooked. “I was like, wow, this is really a community.”
Advice for guests at this year’s fiesta? Take in the wine seminars where you learn from industry greats (“the best deal in town”). And the Phenomenal Femmes Luncheon, inspired by an event created by her mentor Marika Vida-Arnold, holds a special place in her heart. “When I talk about community being the driver that brought me here, this is my vision of what that is.”
Nicole Carter, President of Roederer Collection USA
Merry Edwards, SFWCF Winery of the Year
Carter is a storyteller, and the stories she tells are ones of grapes and earth and the people who tend them. “Not only does wine tell a story from year to year, but wine tells a story about how it came to be,” she says. This passion was kindled when she was a young wine steward: “I loved the theatre of it. I loved learning the stories of wine and presenting those to people.” The flame grew warmer when she studied wine at UC Berkeley Extension. “I never looked back. That was 28 harvests ago,” she laughs.
Today at Merry Edwards Winery and Vineyards in the Russian River Valley of California, she works closely with winemaker Heidi von der Mehden. “I consider her my true partner in everything we do at Merry Edwards,” she says. And, of course, Merry Edwards herself, who started the winery, is still involved. In fact, Carter’s favorite of the Merry Edwards’ vineyards is Meredith, named after Merry Edwards. “Not only is it breathtakingly beautiful, but the wine from that vineyard is elegant and distinctive.”
This year, SFWCF has chosen Merry Edwards at its winery of the year, an honor that isn’t lost on Carter. “Considering the caliber of the wineries that come to pour each year and the elite culinary talent in Santa Fe, we are thrilled to be part of this 34th annual celebration,” she says.
Evan Martin, Founder and Winemaker, Martin Woods
There’s more than a touch of wanderlust in Evan Martin. But today he’s firmly rooted in McMinnville, Oregon in the foothills of the Willamette Valley where he is the heart and soul of Martin Woods Winery. Where does the name come from? “I’m Evan Martin and I live very much in the woods,” he says simply. “The setting is like a sanctuary in a native oak forest that’s just outside of the town of McMinnville, but it feels a world away.”
He’s been fascinated by wines and wine making for much of his life and started making his own wines in 2014. “I thought I would make taut, fresher, more elegant, brighter styles of white that reminded me more of French wines.”
He’s constantly pushing himself to make wine that truly speaks of the land. “How can I really master this and how can I do this the best I possibly can?” he asks. “You’re listening to the innate voice that a vineyard wants to express.” There is no downtime but you might find Martin at his other venture, the HiFi Wine Bar, a McMinnville wine community hang-out. “It’s a place people can go and draw inspiration by drinking great wines in an atmosphere of phenomenal music and just fun.”
Martin’s other roots are in Santa Fe, dating back to his great grandfather (Martin himself lived and worked here in 2006), so he’s excited to return for this year’s fiesta. “The landscape of northern New Mexico, kind of really grabs me. It feels like coming home.”
Martin Woods is one of the Willamette Valley wineries taking part in SFWCF as part of the Wine Region of the Year along with Willamette Valley Vineyards, Brooks Wines, Erath, Chateau Sainte Michelle, and A to Z Wineworks.
Cristian Pontiggia, Executive Chef, Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi
Thank Cristian Pontiggia’s mom for his becoming a chef. Both grandparents were excellent cooks – his grandfather’s Venetian liver and his grandmother’s pasta and desserts were legend. His Mom? “My Mom – she’s not really a good cook,” he says. So Pontiggia started cooking at the age of 8. “Nobody’s too young to cook.” But he admits loving his mom’s lasagna. “Analyze it like a chef and it’s the worst lasagna. Analyze it like a son, and it’s the best.”
Pontiggia studied at an art academy in Italy but food was his true love, lured by the feeling that each time you cook there is the possibility of magic. “You made that dish one time and it’s gone and you have to make it again and again, but it’s never going to be exactly the same,” he says. He’s worked in restaurants around the world before he met his wife on a trip to New Mexico and never left.
Cooking starts in his mind first and then onto the plate. “Experimentation is my favorite part.” Also the joy of the diner. “It’s something about when you see people eating and they kind of look up, and you know you did it right.” Pontiggia has been part of SFWCF for around 15 years and says there’s nothing like it. It’s the camaraderie and community, he says. “It’s something different!”
George Gundrey, Owner of Tomasita’s and Atrisco Café and Bar
You might wonder if George Gundrey’s blood is red or green. No matter the color, chile runs deep in his veins. He grew up doing homework in a booth at Tomasita’s – the restaurant his mom Georgia took over from the original Tomasita. Soon he was washing dishes or busing tables at his dad’s restaurant on Cerrillos Road. “My mom was paying me $1 an hour to bus tables at Tomasita’s and my dad said, ‘Well, I’ll pay you $2.50 an hour to wash dishes.’ And I said, ‘See you later, Mom!’”
By the time he was in high school, he’d done every job except bartend. “I’ve made the guacamole, I’ve grated the cheese, all that stuff.” After time in California and work in non-profits, he came back to Santa Fe and wanted to run his own business. “I came to really understand how important all businesses are, especially locally owned businesses for the community.”
He opened Atrisco then later took over Tomasita’s. He bought a farm in Villanueva, New Mexico in 2006 and the following year became Executive Director at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market, a role he held for two years. He’s been involved with SFWCF for 15 years (Tomasita’s has been taking part for around 30) and for him, it’s all about community. “The appeal for us is just maintaining that connection with everybody.”
Kathleen Crook, Co-Founder and Executive Chef, Market Steer Steakhouse
Kathleen Crook was raised with two guiding principles: you work hard, play hard and whatever you start, you finish. She was picking cucumbers on the family farm by the age of five. “It formed me as a human. It formed me as a chef,” she says of her upbringing. As for the food? “They were eating farm to table before it was cool,” she laughs. Home was Artesia, New Mexico, where she was surrounded by family. “They say it takes a village, and it definitely took a village to raise me, for sure,” she laughs.
Growing up, rodeo was her passion, and in 1997 she won the American Cowboys Rodeo Association (ACRA) Breakaway Roping title (the saddle she was awarded resides proudly at Market Steer Steakhouse). It was while working on her mom’s ranch that she saw a Scottsdale Culinary Institute infomercial. “And I was like, I’m going to do that.” She applied, was accepted, sold her truck, trailer, and horses, bought a car, and moved to Scottsdale.
She’s been cooking ever since and still can’t get enough of it. She describes herself as a minimalist when it comes to cooking. “If you’ve got really great vegetables, for example, you don’t need to do much to them. You just need to help them.” Crook is a huge SFWCF fan and confesses to over-committing. Her favorite? Rosé all day which is the last event. “It’s just a bit more chilled and always fun.”
Story by Julia Platt Leonard
Principal photography by Gabriella Marks
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