Laurent Gruet’s High-Altitude Sparkle
From the deserts of New Mexico to the forefront of American wine, Laurent Gruet has spent four decades proving world-class sparkling wines can come from unexpected places.
If you combine all the special events, Laurent Gruet has been to a least a million weddings, engagements, birthdays and various special occasions.
Not in person, of course, but through the sparkling wines he crafts. The affable, dedicated and expert winemaker relished in the moments his passion has helped elevate.
“So many people come up to me and say, ‘I got married to your wine!’” Gruet said. “That’s the idea. It’s nice when people remember why they had the wine. When you’re happy you are in a better mood and the wine is opened up by your senses.”
The veteran winemaker is the most influential voice in domestic sparkling wine. He’s crafted outstanding sparkling wines, and he’s done it from New Mexico, not exactly a bastion of American winemaking.
He put the state on the map, first with his eponymous winery he founded in 1986 and later sold, and today with Vara, a rising star in American sparkling wine production since 2016.
Gruet's path to prominence is as effervescent as the wines he crafts. Born into a winemaking family in Bethon, France, Gruet learned the Champagne method in the cellars of his father, Gilbert. But it was a trip to the American Southwest in the early 1980s that changed the trajectory of his life.
