Colorado wine getting better with age

Homegrown Centennial State vino continues to evolve and mature

By Jay McKinney 

Colorado may not have the reputation (yet) of California’s viticultural industry, but wine grapes have been grown in the Centennial State for more than a century and the industry has only expanded over the years. Prohibition essentially halted the state’s wine production but after a revival in the 1960s, wine now contributes more than $300 million to the economy. 

The Western Slope has become a legitimate tourist destination for wine lovers and Colorado’s picturesque vineyards consistently produce great fruit. Outside of the vineyards, wineries have also made their way to the Front Range and other parts of the state where grapes aren’t grown. The winemakers who make it all possible have seen immense growth and changes through the years but quality over quantity is still paramount when it comes to production. 

One industry veteran who has left his mark across the state, is Ben Parsons, founder of the Ordinary Fellow Winery in Palisade. The winery gets its name from an old pub in Kent, England, where Parsons hails from and it is his latest winemaking endeavor after being in the industry since the early 90s. He obtained an enological degree in South Australia. He then applied for a winemaking job at Canyon Wind Cellars in Palisade and moved to Colorado in 2001. At the time Parsons didn’t even realize Colorado had a wine industry, but he was intrigued by the opportunity. 

Through his time as a winemaker in Colorado, Parsons has worked with Sutcliffe Vineyards in Cortez, and he also founded the Infinite Monkey Theorem in Denver before moving back to Palisade to launch the Ordinary Fellow. With Infinite Monkey Theorem, Parsons pushed the envelope and sparked the urban winery craze when it became the first winery to can its product. Since then, other wineries have followed suit in an effort to make the beverage more casual and accessible. While Parsons has been immersed in the industry and seen it grow considerably, he still considers Colorado’s wineries more intimate than other areas.

Alfred Eames | Photo courtesy of Alfred Eames Cellars

“When I first moved here there were 36 wineries in Colorado and now there’s around 160 on any given day,” Parsons says. “The industry has definitely grown, but it hasn’t grown that quickly. It’s still small and niche, family owned and operated, and everyone’s got a good story. It’s going to be more intimate and less corporate when customers come out to visit because they’re talking to the owner. They want to have a conversation and they want an experience and I think Palisade and the Western Slope in general offers that.”

Palisade’s family-owned Wine Country Inn is a perfect example. It opened in 2008 and offers guests a premier Western Slope getaway with 80 rooms, luxurious amenities and incredible food and wine pairings. The Tally family owns the inn as well as Grande River Vineyards that shares the property. 

Before purchasing Grande River Vineyards, the Tallys operated the hotel as a neutral space that promoted all the wineries on the Western Slope. The hotel now primarily serves wine made on site at Grande River Vineyards, but co-owner Anne Tally says they still embrace the “all for one, one for all” mentality and offer other Colorado wines. Each winery’s success is a win for the entire industry and Tally always looks to recommend other wineries when interacting with her hotel guests. 

“Colorado wine in general is improving every year and the perception of that fact is growing. The art of winemaking in Colorado will always be limited in quantity but not in quality.”
— Alfred Eames, owner, Alfred Eames Cellars

“Since we opened the hotel, every year seems to be better and new people are discovering the industry,” Tally says. “There are still people who have lived in Colorado for a really long time and they’re just discovering that Colorado has a wine industry. I would say probably close to 80 percent (of hotel guests) are Colorado residents. Our weekends fill up faster than anything else and most of our reservations are generally from the Front Range.”

While the Front Rangers may be fueling the tourism industry on the Western Slope, Tally believes the tourists coming from elsewhere value Colorado’s off-the-beaten-path wine scene and exceptional quality of wines.

Joe Buckel of Buckel Family Wine in Gunnison is proud of the quality of wine coming out of Colorado and sees it as a result of two opposing reasons. On the one hand, Buckel says it starts in the vineyard and he credits the Grand Valley’s history of agriculture and the farmers who emphasized soil health and proper farming practices when growing peaches, cherries and other crops. This laid the groundwork for high-quality grapes and a thriving viticultural industry. However, Buckel also believes Colorado wine has improved because of the increasing number of winemakers with formal training. 

“I’m not sure how many people were formally trained or had done time in other wine regions, but it was definitely few and far between when I got here in 2009,” Buckel says. “There’s been a lot more people coming from different places in California, so the winemaking techniques are getting more sound. It’s not just people saying, ‘I want to make wine’ and going out and starting to do it. It’s actually people that were professionally in the industry and taught by really good people and brought really good systems and processes with them.”

Buckel is speaking from experience, having worked at three different wineries in Sonoma and attending Napa Valley College for formal education in enology. He’s thankful of his time in California and the education he received but he’s also quick to credit the winemaking program at Colorado Mesa University, which has been instrumental in teaching the next generation of winemakers. The combination of factors has raised the bar for the Colorado wine industry and it will continue to do so, according to Buckel.   

A degree in enology and formal training at an established winery certainly can’t hurt a winemaker’s ability, but there is still great wine being made by self-taught amateurs. Juliann Adams owns Vines 79 Wine Barn in Palisade and made wine for nearly 15 years as an amateur before her colleagues told her she needed to go commercial with her product. 

“It’s a huge leap to go from amateur to commercial, and you really have to know that you have that support behind you,” Adams says. “This community is a very strong network and so I knew that if there was anything I needed, I could call anybody and find an answer.”

Vines 79 Wine Barn opened in 2020, but Adams has been immersed in the Western Slope wine scene for years and believes it has evolved. In the 1980s and 1990s, she says there were a lot more fruity and sweet wines and now there are more dry red wines and sparkling wines being produced. According to Adams, there’s also been an increase in unique processing methods such as pétillant naturel (pét-nat) which means “naturally sparkling” in French and involves bottling the wine before the initial fermentation has finished.  

While winemakers may be experimenting with an ancient technique like pét-nat to appease shifting taste preferences, certain wineries have also looked to the future and begun planting hybrid and cold hardy varietals that suit the climate of Colorado. Adams is optimistic about the potential of these varietals, but Vines 79 is currently sticking with the traditional European varietals cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and syrah because the winery has formed its identity around dry reds made with these grapes.

Regardless of where a vineyard is located, Colorado weather can be unpredictable and potentially devastating. The struggles that growers grapple with in the Grand Valley are often more extreme in Colorado’s second and only other American Viticultural Area, the West Elks AVA. 

With the elevation of the West Elks AVA being nearly 1,000 feet higher, the winters can be harsher than the Grand Valley and therefore the vines are more susceptible to problems. According to Alfred Eames of Alfred Eames Cellars in Paonia, the tradeoff is that with favorable conditions, the fruit can be exceptional. Eames made his first wine in 1972 but opened Alfred Eames Cellars in 1999 when there were only three wineries in the valley. Now there are 12. He agrees with Adams that Colorado wine drinkers have started to crave more sophisticated wines than they used to. 

“When we first came here a lot of people would ask me if I had any sweet wines,” Eames says. “They’re people that were used to country wines that grandpa made, and they were generally sweet wines. That was the taste in the rural country, but that has changed. There’s a lot more people that like a good complex dry wine.”

 Eames has seen the West Elks AVA and the Colorado wine industry as a whole evolve into a reputable region for the beverage. From professional winemaking practices to a heightened importance on wine’s space in the culinary world, Colorado wine has only gotten better and will continue to do so. 

“Colorado wine in general is improving every year and the perception of that fact is growing,” Eames says.  “The art of winemaking in Colorado will always be limited in quantity but not in quality.  The industry may not grow much in volume: There is simply not enough space or water. But it will continue to grow in excellence.”

Jay McKinney grew up in Sedalia and graduated from the Metropolitan State University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in communications. During his free time, he enjoys playing golf, shooting pool and hiking throughout Colorado and neighboring Utah.