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Ponderosa Valley is on the southern slope of the Jemez Mountains. Henry and Mary Street are the winemakers. Ponderosa Winery has been producing award winning Riesling since 1978. The village of Ponderosa dates from a 1760 land grant deeded to Spanish soldiers as an incentive to relocate into this area to protect the local Jemez Indians from marauding Navajos and Utes. The first grape vines were planted in the Ponderosa Valley in the early 1880's by villagers who were seasonal employees of the large vineyards and wineries in the villages of Corrales and Bernallillo located in the Rio Grande valley north of present day Albuquerque. Wine and brandy production soon followed and contiued until the 1920's. Then, due to the physical isolation of this valley, (and if oral history is correct,) winemaking and brandy production assumed a more important stature during prohibition. The old style winemaking and brandy production continued until after WWII. Remnants of these old vineyards still exist in the valley today.