Five days, suspicious chemistry, excellent wine and a worrying number of people asking whether we know a man called Heisenberg.

New Mexico is famous for many things. Desert landscapes, spectacular sunsets, green chilli, UFO conspiracies and a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who demonstrated why it's important to have a sensible retirement plan.

But here's something you might not know. New Mexico also makes wine. Proper wine. From actual vineyards. And some of it is rather good.

Naturally, when Tipple Tours discovered that America's most famous fictional drug empire operated in a state with a thriving wine industry, we immediately began investigating. Not the drugs, obviously. The wine. Although we've now spent an alarming amount of time studying car washes, fried chicken restaurants and suspicious-looking recreational vehicles.

Welcome to our guide to the Walter White Wine Weekend, a gloriously unconventional adventure combining Breaking Bad filming locations, New Mexico wineries, Albuquerque's strangest attractions and enough questionable chemistry jokes to concern the local authorities.

Breaking Bad But With Better Drinking Habits

For anyone who spent the late 2000s living under a rock, Breaking Bad follows Walter White, an Albuquerque chemistry teacher who receives a cancer diagnosis and decides to enter the methamphetamine business. It's an unusual career change, particularly when you consider that becoming a private tutor would probably have involved considerably fewer shootouts.

The series transformed Albuquerque into a television tourism destination. Fans now travel from around the world to photograph Walter White's house, visit Los Pollos Hermanos filming locations and stand outside buildings that once witnessed fictional events of quite spectacular criminal stupidity.

We looked at all this and thought: what if somebody organised a holiday that combined these legendary locations with wine tastings, eccentric bars and five days of behaving like tourists who probably shouldn't be trusted with laboratory equipment?

And so a wonderfully ridiculous idea was born.

Wait, New Mexico Actually Makes Wine?

Yes. And rather embarrassingly for anyone who thinks American wine begins and ends in California, New Mexico has been producing the stuff for centuries.

Spanish missionaries introduced grape growing to the region in the 1600s, making New Mexico one of the oldest wine-producing areas in what is now the United States. While California was still waiting for its moment in the spotlight, New Mexico was already getting on with the important business of turning grapes into something worth drinking.

Today, the state produces everything from crisp whites and sparkling wines to robust reds. The high-altitude vineyards benefit from intense sunshine, cool nights and dramatic temperature changes, all of which can help grapes develop interesting flavours.

Look out for Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Tempranillo, Chardonnay and locally produced sparkling wines. There are also some more unusual bottles waiting to be discovered, although we draw the line at anything served in a chemistry flask by a man wearing yellow rubber gloves.

The important scientific discovery? New Mexico is considerably more interesting as a wine destination than most people realise. And unlike Walter White's laboratory, the tasting rooms generally welcome visitors.

Albuquerque: Where Every Car Wash Looks Suspicious

Albuquerque is the beating heart of the Breaking Bad universe and the obvious base for our thoroughly irresponsible-looking but entirely legitimate adventure.

The city is packed with recognisable filming locations. There's the famous car wash where Walter and Skyler became involved in some spectacularly creative accounting. There's the restaurant used as Los Pollos Hermanos, where you can contemplate the possibility that your chicken supplier has a rather complicated business model. And there are countless streets, houses and industrial buildings that fans will recognise instantly.

One of the most entertaining ways to explore is aboard a Breaking Bad-themed RV tour, visiting locations associated with the series while discovering behind-the-scenes stories. The RV experience is particularly appropriate given that our preferred method of sightseeing usually involves sitting down while somebody else does the driving.

We'd also explore locations associated with Better Call Saul, the equally brilliant spin-off featuring television's most spectacularly flexible interpretation of legal ethics.

And yes, there will be plenty of opportunities for photographs. Although we'd strongly advise against standing outside somebody's actual house shouting, "I am the one who knocks!" at nine in the morning.

The Wineries: Say My Name. It's Tempranillo.

New Mexico's wine scene deserves far more attention than it receives, and our adventure wouldn't be complete without discovering what the local winemakers are producing.

Around Albuquerque and farther afield, wineries and tasting rooms offer an opportunity to sample the state's increasingly varied wines. Some have lovely mountain views, others focus on traditional winemaking and a few have exactly the relaxed atmosphere we like at Tipple Tours.

One of the best-known names is Gruet, which has helped establish New Mexico's reputation for sparkling wine. The family-founded winery has French roots and produces bubbles that have earned recognition well beyond the state.

Other local producers offer reds, whites and experimental blends that provide a fascinating introduction to the region's winemaking personality.

We'll be looking for excellent wines, interesting characters and the occasional tasting experience that gets gloriously out of hand in the storytelling department.

If somebody describes their Cabernet as having notes of blackberry, tobacco and mild existential dread, we'll consider that a particularly successful afternoon.

Better Call Saul. We've Found a Bar.

Albuquerque isn't just about television locations and vineyards. It's also home to a growing craft beer scene, atmospheric bars and restaurants serving the sort of New Mexican food that makes you reconsider your relationship with chilli peppers.

New Mexico's famous question is "Red or green?" referring to the choice of chilli sauce accompanying many local dishes. The correct answer, for the indecisive, is often "Christmas", meaning both.

This is excellent news for people who enjoy culinary adventures and terrible news for anyone who has packed only white shirts.

Our ideal evening involves discovering a characterful local bar, trying regional drinks and enjoying a meal that arrives accompanied by a warning about the chilli. We're not interested in spending five days marching between tourist attractions with a clipboard. We want the sort of places where locals gather, the drinks are interesting and somebody inevitably has a story involving an escaped animal or a former mayor.

And if we encounter a suspicious-looking lawyer offering discount legal advice, we'll probably just order another round of chips.

Beyond Breaking Bad: New Mexico Gets Even Stranger

One of the reasons we love New Mexico is that the state was already wonderfully peculiar long before Walter White started manufacturing trouble.

There's the desert scenery, with mountains rising dramatically above Albuquerque. There's the extraordinary Sandia Peak Tramway, which carries visitors high above the city. And there's the wonderfully eccentric American obsession with roadside attractions, odd museums and places that appear to have been designed during a particularly ambitious cheese dream.

New Mexico also has a long association with UFO stories, particularly around Roswell, although that's considerably farther away than Albuquerque and would require a separate adventure.

For our five-day weekend, the idea is to concentrate on the best of Albuquerque and its surroundings rather than spend half the holiday staring at the back of a minibus.

Expect unexpected stops, peculiar local history, photogenic desert landscapes and at least one moment when somebody asks, "Are we actually allowed to be here?"

We will be. Almost certainly.

Five Days of Wine, Crime and Suspicious Chemistry

So what might a Walter White-inspired wine adventure actually look like?

Day One: Welcome to Albuquerque. Arrive in New Mexico, meet your fellow travellers and enjoy a relaxed welcome evening. We'll introduce everyone over dinner, explain the weekend's plans and establish that nobody is permitted to answer their hotel telephone with "Better call Saul."

Day Two: The RV Investigation. Time to explore Breaking Bad country with a specialist filming-locations experience. Expect famous houses, familiar businesses, legendary scenes and enough television trivia to make you deeply unpopular at your next pub quiz. The evening is reserved for food, drinks and comparing everyone's best Walter White impression.

Day Three: Wine Is My Business. We're swapping fictional criminal enterprises for entirely respectable New Mexico wineries. Expect tastings, local producers, beautiful landscapes and the discovery that Albuquerque's surrounding wine country deserves a place on the tourist map. Nobody is allowed to describe the wine as "99.1% pure."

Day Four: Better Call the Bartender. More filming locations, more peculiar Albuquerque discoveries and opportunities to explore the city's craft beer and bar scene. We'll combine the television connections with some of the area's less predictable attractions before finishing with a suitably memorable evening.

Day Five: I Am the One Who Checks Out. A leisurely final morning, perhaps one last local coffee and the difficult task of explaining to friends and family why you've returned from a wine holiday with 400 photographs of car washes, chicken shops and abandoned-looking buildings.

That's the spirit of the adventure. Specific wineries, venues and experiences will depend on the final itinerary and availability.

Is This Just for Breaking Bad Fans?

Absolutely not. Although it probably helps if you know why a bald man wearing a pork pie hat is considered a perfectly reasonable subject for holiday photography.

This adventure is designed for people who enjoy unusual destinations, good drinks, great company and holidays that don't involve following a guide holding a brightly coloured umbrella around a cathedral for three hours.

If you love Breaking Bad, there's the obvious thrill of exploring the locations where the series was filmed. If you love wine, there's the chance to discover a seriously underrated American wine region. And if you simply enjoy bizarre travel experiences, Albuquerque offers plenty of opportunities to return home with stories that become increasingly difficult to explain.

You don't need to be a wine expert, television obsessive or retired chemistry teacher. You just need a sense of humour and a willingness to embrace the unexpected.

Why Visit New Mexico Instead of Napa Valley?

Napa Valley has world-famous wineries, luxury hotels, Michelin-starred restaurants and a reputation for taking wine extremely seriously.

New Mexico has interesting wines, desert landscapes, eccentric attractions and a chicken restaurant that once served as the fictional headquarters of an international drug empire.

Frankly, it's a difficult decision.

But for Tipple Tours, the appeal is obvious. We love taking people somewhere they might never have considered visiting and showing them that brilliant drinking adventures don't have to happen in the world's most famous wine regions.

New Mexico offers something different. It's less predictable, culturally fascinating and full of places that combine excellent hospitality with wonderfully unusual stories.

And unlike a traditional wine holiday, there's a reasonable chance you'll spend part of the afternoon photographing a car wash.

The Walter White Wine Weekend: A Holiday With Chemistry

At Tipple Tours, we've never believed that a wine holiday should consist entirely of politely swirling glasses while somebody explains the mineral composition of a hillside.

Sometimes the best adventures involve strange places, ridiculous ideas and discovering something extraordinary where nobody expected to find it.

That's exactly why New Mexico caught our attention.

A destination famous for fictional methamphetamine production turns out to have a fascinating real-life wine history. A city best known for television crime drama offers a brilliant mixture of food, drinks, desert scenery and eccentric local culture. And a holiday that sounds completely absurd on paper might just become one of the most entertaining trips we've ever organised.

Five days. New Mexico wine. Breaking Bad filming locations. Strange bars. Excellent company. And absolutely no actual criminal activity.

Welcome to Albuquerque.

Small groups. Big pours. No blue crystals.

Fancy Joining the Investigation?

Discover our Albuquerque adventure, The Albuquerque Getaway: RVs, Wine & Suspicious Chemistry, and find out what happens when Breaking Bad meets a Tipple Tours wine holiday.

Explore the Tipple Tours adventures

Tipple Tours is an independent travel company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by AMC, Sony Pictures Television or the creators of Breaking Bad.