What do you think of when you think of Colorado? Chances are that Colorado wine isn’t the first image that comes to mind, but it should be somewhere on your radar screen. Wine is both old and new in this Rocky Mountain state.

Peaks and Valleys

Wine was first produced in 1890 from grapes grown on 60 acres of vineyard and orchard land on Rapid Creek above Palisade along the Colorado River. The decades since these first wines were made have been full of peaks and valleys for Colorado wine and Sue and I have had sort of a rocky road experience ourselves with these wines.

We’ve had several chances to taste Colorado wines over the years, especially when I spoke at the state’s annual VinCO Conference in 2018. While we’ve been impressed by some of the wines, we were disappointed by others.

Peaks and valleys. This uneven experience is a problem because you seldom get a second chance to make a first impression when people taste your wine. But it is also understandable. Honestly, I don’t know any wine region that doesn’t have its share of peaks and valleys.

Climbing to the Heights

It is also understandable because, although the Colorado wine industry is surprisingly old, it is also unexpectedly young. You see, Colorado citizens embraced Prohibition even before the national policy was enacted and the vines were ripped out more than 100 years ago. Wine really didn’t restore its foothold in Colorado until the 1970s (Warren Winniarski, of Judgment of Paris fame, made some of those early wines). The industry has charted an upward path since then, but the road has remained rocky.

Sue and I were delighted when offered the opportunity to taste Colorado wines from The Ordinary Fellow winery, a project of the winemaker Ben Parsons and located in the old United Fruit Growers COOP peach packing shed in Palisade. I don’t know Parsons personally, but his career path reminds me of Randall Grahm. Grahm is a brilliant brand-builder who is also a committed terroirist. Both land and brand, if you know what I mean. I think Parsons might be the same.

Parsons achieved brand-building fame with The  Infinite Monkey Theorem winery. He started out making wine in a quonset hut in Denver, far from the vineyards but up close to the urban customer base. He set out to be different, which drew him to keg wine and then to cans. Infinite Monkey Theorem became a canned wine phenomenon to such a degree that at one point a second winery was opened in Austin. Parsons and the Infinite Monkey Theorem brand were way ahead of the curve in terms of cans and creating an image and environment that appeals to younger consumers.

Parsons left Infinite Monkey Theorem in 2019 to found The Ordinary Fellow (named for a favorite pub in England), making wine in Palisade from grapes grown on two high-elevation vineyards in southwest Colorado.

More Than Mile High

We tasted three of the Colorado wines. Our favorite was a 2021 Riesling ($18) from the Box Bar vineyard, elevation 6200 feet. It had intense Riesling character and developed nicely in the glass with dinner. We also enjoyed the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) from the same vineyard. Can you taste high elevation? I wonder. This wine reminded me of some high-elevation Malbecs from Salta in Argentina. The acidity really lifted the and balanced the tannins. Was it really an elevation effect? Probably the power of suggestion, but very interesting.

The 2021 Pinot Noir ($25) from the 6800-foot Hawk’s Nest vineyard struck us as a work in progress, but one we’d be interested to follow in the years to come. What a beautiful light color and nice nose! But Sue thought it tasted more like a Grenache than Pinot Noir, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Me? I’m just amazed that Pinot Noir can be grown in Colorado, but I guess I need to reimagine what’s possible in Colorado. Overall I would say these wines are a “peak” experience for sure. I hope we have a chance to visit the winery in Palisade somewhere down the road.

Parons produces about 2500 cases of wine these days with plans to grow to 5000 cases. He’s working hard to develop the vineyards and to make wine that reflects their particular terroir.

Rocky Road Ahead?

Colorado has 163 wineries according to Wine Business Monthly’s annual survey, which puts it just ahead of Missouri and just behind of North Carolina (two important wine producers) on the list. A WineAmerica economic impact study suggests wine is an important driver of jobs and income.

I asked my friend Doug Caskey, who is executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, about the road ahead for the state’s wine industry and he provided a very realistic assessment. On the plus side, innovation is rising, including new sparkling wines that expand the state’s wine menu. But scale (and therefore economies of scale) is limited by several factors including water availability, the risk of severe winter weather, and the cost of vineyard lands.

Colorado recently expanded wine sales from specialized shops to include supermarkets and convenience stores and this change introduces a big question mark for Colorado wines. On one hand, wine will be more readily available for the state’s shoppers, which is likely to increase wine sales. But will it increase Colorado wine sales, or will those supermarket shelves be filled with bigger-volume wines from California and elsewhere? Lots of uncertainty.

Will the rising tide lift all wine boats? Maybe. Supermarkets like to demonstrate their commitment to local products and producers. What could be more local in Colorado than Colorado wine? However, based on what we’ve seen in other states, it’s a tough problem to solve.

Sue and I are glad we had this opportunity to revisit Colorado wine and look forward to learning more about this state’s evolving wine industry in the future.

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As you probably already guessed, The Ordinary Fellow wine isn’t ordinary at all. Its exceptionalism begins with the colorful labels, which are actually more complicated and interactive than they appear in the photos. There are two parts to the label. The first is a very colorful inner label that reminds me a little of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” type of art, then a plain white outer label that rotates to reveal different aspects of the inner art. Kinda psychedelic! Not ordinary at all.

The American wine scene is incredibly deep and wide. There are thousands of wineries (more than 11,000 in 2023, according to Wine Business Monthly) producing tens of thousands of different wines with prices ranging from two bucks to several hundred dollars.  Wine is produced in every state and the District of Columbia, too.

Spoiled for Choice

This explosion of American wine is noteworthy for many reasons, especially in the context of history. Don’t forget that commercial sales of wine were illegal during Prohibition and are still heavily taxed,  regulated, and often discouraged in many parts of the country.

The widespread production of wine is also challenged by what the economist Robert H. Frank called The Winner-Take-All Society in his book of the same name. When consumers have a choice (and wine consumers have an incredible abundance of choice), it is natural for them to begin to look for the best choice and to focus on that once it is identified. (Wine critic numerical scores reinforce this process, of course). Add in the band-wagon effect as transmitted through the internet (think Yelp rankings of winery visits) and pretty sonon attention is firmly focused on a relatively small number of favorites with most of the rest left behind.

It was easy to see the Winner-Take-All effect when Frank’s book was published in 1995. It is easy to see it now, too, and it represents one of several powerful forces for consolidation in the wine industry. There may be more than 11,000 wineries all across America, but most of the wine is made by a small number of large wineries in California. The winner doesn’t take it all in terms of market share, but lots of smaller wineries struggle a bit for market traction and attention.

Think Local. Drink Local.

Sue and I try to seek out local wine producers when we travel and we are fascinated by what we discover. A recent Wine Economist column on Arizona Wine Revisited has inspired us to highlight Mendocino County, California. It isn’t a new wine region — quite the opposite! But, sitting just north of the bright lights shining on the Napa and Sonoma valleys, Mendocino has suffered from the downside of the winner-take-all situation.

Jancis Robinson and Linda Murphy summed up one part of the Mendocino story in their 2013 book on American Wine. 

Only in the last two decades has Mendocino County won acclaim for its wines; previously it was known for selling its grapes outside the county. In the early 1900s Mendocino didn’t have railroads or river systems with which to deliver finished wines to San Francisco, where they could be sold. So growers transported their fruit by wagon to the Italian Swiss Colony co-op in Asti (Sonoma County), where they were ” lost” in large, inexpensive blends. … Those discouraging days are finally over.

Some of those early Italian Swiss Colony wines cited Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino (great billing!) as the source of the grapes. But that, I think, was before the advent of American Viticultural Areas and their regulations. Soon these wines were designated “California” and Mendocino sort of fell off both the label and the consumer radar. The wine wars became brand wars and brand Mendocino struggled.

But, as American Wine notes, Mendocino is back. Although lots of Mendo grapes are still “exported” to other parts of California to make popular wines, home-grown producers are getting recognition, too.

Sue and I sampled wines from three Mendocino producers during a pair of “Mendocino weeks” at our house: Husch Vineyards, Graziano Family of Wines, and Ettore Winery. Although this only scratches the surface of Mendocino wine, these wines show some of the many faces of the region.

Both Sides Now: Husch Vineyards.

Husch Vineyards dates from 1968 and became the first bonded winery in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley in 1971. The Oswald family purchased the operation in 1979 and it has stayed in the family ever since.

Husch wines show two distinctly different faces of Mendocino County. The Anderson Valley’s cooler climate yields elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and a Dry Gewurtztraminer with a loyal following. Warmer inland vineyards produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Old Vine Zinfandel, and Chenin Blanc grapes among others.

The wines are impressive, but the Dry Gewurtztraminer, off-dry Chenin Blanc, and Old Vines Heritage red wine blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Carignane from the historic Garzini Ranch vineyard, are special favorites. We are fans.

All in the Family: Graziano Family of Wines

If Husch Vineyards is old by contemporary California standards, Graziano, founded in 1918, is positively historic and makes a point to honor its history in its wines. After 70 years as  growers, Greg Graziano started making wine, too, in 1988. I think he realized his grapes were too good to let them disappear into other wineries’ big vats. The wine family today includes four labels: Saint Gregory, Monte Volpe, Enotria, and Graziano.

The Saint Gregory wines exploit cooler vineyard sites and include Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The Graziano wines, on the other hand, highlight the old vines planted by the family in warmer spots, including the California classic trinity of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and Carignane, plus a lovely Chenin Blanc.

The Monte Volpe and Enotria labels honor the family’s Italian heritage with wines made from traditional Italian grape varieties such as Sangiovese, Vermentino, Negroamaro, and Aglianico (Monte Volpe) and Arneis, Dolcetto, and Barbera (Enotria).

Obviously, the wines are very different from one another, but they share a certain undeniable family resemblance that I characterize as “Italian sensibility.” What do I mean by that? Well, Italian wines are just different, with their lifted acidity and the way they call for food to pair with them. Greg Graziano is the dean of Mendocino winemakers and I think the winery and its distinctive sensibility is likely to stay “all in the family” for decades to come.

Fresh Faces: The Ettore Winery

Mendocino continues to attract and inspire winemakers. Ettore Biraghi is one of the fresh faces on the scene. Born in Lombardy, Ettore began his winemaking career in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. He owns, with business partner Franco Bruni, Tenuta Agricola Luigina winery in Stabio, Switzerland. Ettore visited California in 2015 to learn about its vineyard regions and discovered Mendocino. His winery opened in 2019 and the first organic wines were released a year later.

We have tasted two of Ettore’s wines. The Cabernet Sauvignon, from Sanel Valley Vineyards vines of 21 to 29 years of age, would compete very well in a lineup with Napa Valley Cabs of twice the price (Mendocino wines in general are very good value  for quality). We also sampled the Chardonnay “Zero,” which is made without added sulfites using a process called “Purovino.” I thought it was a bit weird and didn’t much remind me of Chardonnay, but Sue thought it was interesting. More research required.

Mendocino has a long history and, I think, a bright future. As noted above, we have just scratched the surface, but it is a start and we encourage you to pick up where we left off.

Watch for a series of occasional columns about America’s wine regions. Colorado and Michigan are next on our agenda.

Many of our friends are surprised when we mention English sparkling wine and it is easy to understand why. England isn’t exactly best known for its sunny weather. When economist David Ricardo wanted to illustrate his famous Law of Comparative Advantage, he used the example of England importing wine from sunny Portugal in exchange for warm wool cloth. English wine exports? Who’d have believed it?

English Sparkling Wine is a Thing

And yet English wine is not just a thing, it is a popular thing. But it takes some time for the word to get out. I hosted a virtual wine event for a UK group earlier this year that featured a wine from Nyetimber, a winery that helped put English sparkling wine on the map. About half the participants were familiar with the wine while the other half were taken by surprise. Everyone enjoyed it.

Sue and I were recently invited to sample wines from a leading English producer, Chapel Down. Chapel Down, as the 2015 video above explains,  is one of the largest and best-known wine producers in the UK with an expanding network of vineyard holdings and plans to further increase production. The wines are now available in the U.S. market through retailers in several states and via on-line sellers, too.

We sampled two Chapel Down wines: a Rosé Brut blanc de noir made with 100 percent Pinot Noir grapes and a Brut NV made with the three standard Champagne grape varieties with the addition of 5 percent Pinot Blanc. We all agreed that the Rosé was a great aperitif wine while the Brut NV was better with our meal of tuna and grilled vegetables. Both wines were easy to drink and enjoy — welcome additions to the sparkling wine category.

Chapel Down’s wines and those of other English makers benefit from a combination of factors starting with the vineyard terroir, which bears a resemblance to the chalky soils of the Champagne region (what do you think those white cliffs of Dover are made of?). Climate change has benefited English vineyards, both by providing more favorable growing conditions generally and by enabling a shift to classic grape varieties including especially Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and away from “usual suspect” cool-climate varieties such as Bacchus, Muller-Thurgau, and Reichensteiner. Add ambitious investment and mix with professional winemaking knowledge and technology and you have world-class sparkling wines.

Bali Sparkling Wine is Also a Thing

Prosecco, as I noted in last week’s Wine Economist column, has re-defined the sparkling wine category. Bubbles are not just for special occasions any more and they don’t just come from France, either. There is a world of sparkling wine out there and Champagne producers had a hand in creating it. Did you know that French producer Chandon also makes traditional method sparkling wines in Argentina, Brazil, California, Australia, China, and India?

Sue and I have been saving a bottle of sparkling wine from Bali, Indonesia to share with our friend Janice, who carried it back from a South Pacific trip in the pre-covid days. Ascaro, made by Sababay Winery, is a “Prosecco-style” sparkling wine made from Pinot Grigio and Muscat Saint Valier,  a cross between Seyve Villard 12 and Muscat Hamburg, which is generally grown as a table grape but has been used successfully to make wine in Bali for more than two decades.

We shared the wine with Janice and it was fantastic. Fizzy, fruity but not sweet, nicely balanced, with enough complexity to make things interesting — it was everything you would want from a sparkling wine on a warm summer evening. It would stand out in any line-up of similar wines from around the world.

Sababay Winery is an interesting project as my former student Ali Hoover reported in a 2014 Wine Economist guest column. The mother-daughter team of Mulyati and Evy Gozali founded Sababay because they were concerned about the economic circumstances of grape farmers in North Bali. The local table grape market had boomed and then came the bust, which left the farmers with high debt. The Gozali family  offered to help the farmers get out from under their debts and move toward economic stability by creating a market for quality wine grapes, which promised to yield more value to the farmers than commodity table grapes.

The project has been a success, as the video below suggests and a distillery has been added to the project. I have a bottle of award-winning Saba grappa spirits waiting for the right occasion.  When that time comes we’ll toast the Gozali family or their grace and determination.

The sparkling wine category is full of surprises. Glad to see consumers embracing the diverse pleasures that this part of the wine wall offers.