Meet Jasper Riddle | President- Noisy Water Winery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jasper Riddle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jasper, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Having a good team and never thinking that quitting was an option was instrumental to the success of the brand. I had great people around me that believed in me and believed in what we were doing. We all wanted to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and it was truly amazing to have people around me that believed in what we were doing as much as I believed. I was committed but when you are getting started its tough. Especially when you are trying to change an industry. Lots of people with doubts, lots of critics, but having people around you that were 100% loyal to the mission was absolutely a difference maker. We have carried that forward over time so when we grew from 4 people to 40 to over 100 you saw a lot of those same core believers in new positions helping further the company.

What should our readers know about your business?
Noisy Water is what I would proudly consider to be an industry disruptor. We have an expression that is “Get Noisy” and well we do that. We love creating something new, something mold breaking and doing things that others describe as impossible. We have grown to be one of the larger wineries in our state and are planting more acreage to become one of the larger vineyards as well. We help out little wineries and vineyards and I think have been a huge part of helping take New Mexico Wine as a whole into its next era, which I think is going to be the greatest yet. We care about making great wine, growing amazing grapes in a sustainable way and giving back to the communities we are a part of. We aren’t some big profit driven conglomerate, we care about people, we care about our state and we wake up everyday as a group of pioneers that were crazy enough to try to break the mold in an industry that isnt often shaken up. It’s madness and sometimes we have grown so quickly that we have made mistakes, but the road to success it paved with mistakes. I have learned that with good people around you and your mission focus being on something bigger than yourself its impossible to fail. Im excited to see where the next decade takes us. If you haven’t heard of us or aren’t paying attention I hope that we give you a reason to 🙂

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We are lucky enough to live in New Mexico which is a massively diverse state with a lot of land mass and not many people. The problem for me is if I wanted to show a friend everything we are doing we would be driving the state the whole time. Lol! So lets focus on them flying into Albuquerque hanging out for a day then driving to my vineyards and into Ruidoso where the winery is and where my brand started. Ruidoso is a sleepy little mountain town that has tons of outdoor activities, great craft alcohol producers popping up and Is embedded in an area that is historically so special. In Albuquerque we would go check out Old town and Plaza Don Luis where our tasting room now calls home, Old Town is one of the coolest historical plazas ive been to in the US smack in the heart of the city, My life revolves around wine so we would go to our wineries tasting room in an amazing 1892 historic building, do a tasting, walk through the Lapis Room art gallery and go over and try some other great NM wine at Sheehan then popping upstairs to have some NM craft beer from Downshifts Taproom patio while starring at the Sandia Mountains and an amazing old church at the center of old town. We would spend the night at Los Poblanos eat at their amazing restaurant Campo and drive early the next day to Hatch/Las Cruces .
A detour through Hatch to get some Green Chile and a drive down old NM 185 to my Vineyard in Rincon would be in order where we can have a bubbly libation or two and most likely a joint with my Hippie Mad Genius Uncle Richard Piedmont (Uncle Dicks Hard Cider Brand named after him) who runs our vineyard. We would check out the 50 acres of new vines we planted while driving down the Rio Grande river and enjoy walking around our park like small grove of pecans. I usually like staying the night here at the farm as Richard and I always have something to discuss and most of my friends love being a part of our weird conversations. Wether it be global warming, aliens, grape varietals or some other crop we want to grow someday its usually conversations worth listening to. For dinner I would take a drive into Old Mesilla to have some amazing authentic wood fired Pizza and additional wine from “The Godfather” of New Mexico wines place my dear friend Paolo D’ Andrea at Luna Rossa Winery and Pizzeria.
The next morning we would head for Ruidoso via Cloudcroft on the way and my friend would get to see some truly remarkable New Mexico mountains on the drive. After a quick stop at one tasting room in Cloudcroft , Some tea at Old Barrel Tea Company we’d hit a little disc golf and finish at Cloudcroft brewing for a beer and more PIZZA! The drive from Cloudcroft to Ruidoso via Mescalero is one of my favorites in the world. If I could automatically transport us into a convertible, motorcycle or Jeep with the top off we would enjoy the drive down to my hometown. In Ruidoso we would check out midtown. Pop into our two tasting rooms and also grab drinks at Lost Hiker Brewing and Downshift Brewing then head around to do some site seeing and show my friends the diverse amount of wildlife. On any given day we would see Elk, Deer, Wild Horses and occasionally Turkeys. For dinner we would go out the Inn of the mountain Gods and have Wendells prepare us a chefs table. At this point we need to mind our calories and get some actives in so the next day we would Hike Nogal Peak via the Crest trail in the morning and play an afternoon 9 holes at Outlaw by Alto Lakes. Legit one of the prettiest golf courses I have ever seen. That evening we would go down to the winery and I could give my friend a tour of what we have going on at our production facility and do a little tasting from Barrel, Tank and Foudre.
The next morning one of my must do’s is a drive through the Hondo River Valley stopping at Michael Hurd’s Gallery and getting to see the amazing art, landscapes and a few of his historic properties, Its not uncommon to run into a famous person while at the Hurd Gallery, I am still mad I missed Jay-Z and Beyonce a few years back lo! I would have a little wine and hopefully get to hear stories from my dear friend Michael of the area, starting from the Wild West a little dabble into Roswell and some teaching of life which are always the absolute best. The guy cares about the land and has for many years. He’s the type of person that we need more of. From Michaels we would head over Lincoln and see the stomping grounds of Billy the Kid. A beer and live music at Bonito Valley Brewing is always a great stop and quick circle through Capitan to Oso Grill to have a State Fair Award winning burger would help cap off our day. If In the winter we would ski at Ski Apache, If in the Summer we might catch some horse races at Ruidoso Downs but regardless of what we did we would be immersed in New Mexican Culture which is so diversely unique.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
When I first bought the ownership of the winery it was very small and going through some extremely rough times. I was doing something totally else for a living and to make a long story short I couldn’t find a bank or anyone that was willing to lend me what I needed to make the deal work. The winery was facing a bankruptcy and had past due bills coming in from every direction. I believed in my idea but it was hard to present that I could turn around something that I had never done before without any professional experience. I had two friends Norma and Winston Chen that lent me 50K to help get things off the ground which was a lot of money to them and all the money to me as I had nothing. They always deserve some huge shootouts, as they took a risk on me when no one else would. They believed in me when most people had no reason to. I just hope I can repay the favor to some other entrepreneur in the future. ” I was once told the hardest money you borrow will be the first 10K.”Truer words have never been spoken. Because that first 10K is a leap of faith, someone is believing in you when the formula doesn’t. Thats an amazing person

Website: noisywaterwinery.com

Instagram: @noisywaterwinery- Company @winemakingriddler- Personal

Linkedin: Jasper Riddle

Facebook: Jasper Riddle

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Image Credits
All Stock photos- Noisy Water Winery Marketing Team