Vintner’s Views – May 2006

More First Class Wines Coming from Colorado

   In the first of this new monthly column on wine, we discussed briefly how wine and wineries have grown in the Grand Valley since the mid-70’s.  Today we’re going to give an overview on the state of the art.

   Wine grapes grow well here, and have since the late 1800’s when irrigation became available.  When prohibition became the law of the land, vineyards were largely replaced by orchards.  In 1909, the grape harvest in Colorado reached over one million pounds.  A few years later it was nearly nothing.  It took almost a century to break through the million pound level again.  Total grape production in 2004 was 964 Tons, or almost 2 million pounds.  That’s enough grapes to make roughly 67,000 cases of wine, which is far beyond where we’ve been in the past, but consider that a meduium sized winery in California is about 50,000 cases.  Obviously we have a lot of room to grow, but we’ve been at breakneck acceleration since 1995.  At that time there were only about 5 wineries here in the Grand Valley, and 15 in the state.  Now there are 18 in the valley and 65 in the state.

   So much for the quantities.  What about quality?  In the 1970’s the world rarely thought of California when discussing wine.  So has it been for Colorado wines.  We have ranked highly in some very tough international competitions.  Parker Carlson took the World Riesling Championship at the 28th International Eastern Wine Competition for his 2004 Riesling.  Steve Rhodes won a gold medal at the 2001 Grand Harvest Wine Competition for his ’99 Cabernet Franc.  Stoney Mesa Winery pulled a silver medal for their 2004 Ptarmigan Late Harvest Muscat in the 2005 Denver International Wine Competition.  At that same competition, Woody Creek Cellars took a silver medal for their ’02 Merlot.  The list is very long and these are just a few of the highlights.  To summarize, we have the potential for world-class wines here in Colorado.  It’s just a matter of time before the world knows about Colorado wines.  The key is consistent quality, and that requires some expertise.

   Many of Colorado’s vintners are self-taught home winemakers.  It’s a hobby gone wild.  But there are a good and growing number of experienced winemakers and grape growers that have made Colorado their home.  Several of us have simply been doing it long enough and know the ropes.  Others have been formally schooled and have a winemaking or viticulture degree of some sort.  Another group is taking both paths simultaneously, learning as they go.  In any case, we’re collecting a pool of experienced growers and vintners that know what to do and when to do it.  Not that we don’t have room for improvement, but we’ve come a long way to be sure.  No doubt this trend will continue and we’ll be seeing more and more first class wines coming from our home state.

   Stay tuned for next month’s column on the best grape varieties in Colorado.

This article appeared in the May 17, 2006 edition of the Grand Junction Free Press.

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