Tularosa Vineyards and Winery to open Alamogordo restaurant tasting room

The former Memories Restaurant at 1223 N. New York Avenue is currently being renovated as a new restaurant. 

Family-owned and run Tularosa Vineyards and Winery owner David Wickham is partnering with Steve Heetland to open a tasting room inside the space which will be called Lil' Bit of Heaven. The food concept is still being developed.

"We will really have two businesses at the same location; TV Wine Bar and Taproom and Lil' Bit of Heaven is the restaurant," Heetland said.

Wickham and Heetland have several things in common.

"We have a kinship because we're farmers and military," Heetland said.

The two partners also both enjoy good wine and good conversation.

"I enjoy visiting visiting with the customers, that is the most fun part of what I do," Wickham said.

David Wickham grew up on a northern New York dairy farm 17 miles west of Cornell University.

Wickham served in the U.S. Air Force overseas in Germany and Turkey, and was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base in 1968 where he met his wife and later retired from service in 1976, living in Tularosa.

A couple of years later, Wickham worked as an instrumentation technician at HAFB until 1987.

Wickham said his interest in wine-making was the result of a regular morning ritual.

"Every morning, we had a little ritual where we had coffee every morning and tried to do the puzzle in the paper," Wickham said.

In the paper, Wickham read about a weekend wine-making conference, which made him interested in learning more about the wine-making process.

Wickham attended grape-growing and wine-making seminars through the New Mexico Vine and Wine Society. In 1985, he purchased 10 acres of land and planted his first vineyard.

Wickham initially grew grapes on a half-acre plot in the Tularosa area for a hobby. Today, Wickham has a total of 10 acres of grapes.

By the end of 1989, he had opened a winery and produced his first 100 cases of wine.

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Steve Heetland is a retired U.S. Army chaplain who sold wine for a wine importer in El Paso and is a restaurateur. 

Heetland and Wickham met through Heetland's previous restaurant, The Local, several years ago.

He said he decided to open the restaurant on New York Ave. to provide different entertainment options in Alamogordo.

"For us, we want to converse and have nice conversation," he said, of himself and his wife.

"We want to relax, we may sip for a whole hour on one glass of wine and then we munch."

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The partners said they are considering having food pairings with the wines at the restaurant and wine bar.

Wickham said another idea being considered is to invite other winemakers to the restaurant to do guest tastings.

"Because we could sell their product also," Wickham said.

The restaurant is currently in development, but the partners hope to open sometime in 2020.

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Cristina Carreon can be reached at ccarreon@alamogordonews.com, 575-437-7120 or on Twitter @Cris_carreon90.