The Front Range is at the forefront of growing industry

By the Thirst Team

Two years ago, the prestigious Food & Wine magazine heralded Colorado’s Grand Valley as “the new Sonoma.” The region around Palisade and Fruita is dotted with respected wineries. But those glass-swirling wine experts are likely to check in on the Front Range on their next Colorado excursion.

That’s because the urban corridor also produces top-quality wines alongside our world-famous craft beers and solid spirits. Because Colorado has attracted so many creative types in the libations world, there are a bevy of wines that are racking up awards and recognition around the world.

Here are just a few of the great wine and mead producers on the other side of the Colorado Rockies.

Deep Roots

Several generations of the Edenburn family have loved and crafted wine (hence the Deep Roots moniker). Two sisters brought their experience and passion for wine to Colorado and opened a Denver winery and bistro that is now part of the substantial RiNo wine scene.

The family now makes both traditional European wines and creative fruity wines from grapes in Colorado and the West Coast. Deep Roots was at the forefront of the keg wine movement, offering wine on tap and refillable wine growlers as a more sustainable alternative to traditional corked bottles.

The Deep Roots bistro focuses on predominantly vegetarian shared plates designed to pair with specific wines, including Brussels sprouts, sweet potato truffle fries and mushroom dumplings.

Vinnie Fera Wine

The team behind Boulder’s Vinnie Fera Wine approaches winemaking from a biological perspective. Founder Tim Moley is a trained botanist with a background in spices, chocolate and tea blending. Winemaker Kyle Mitchell earned a degree in horticulture science from Colorado State University, and developed a love for wine working at a Fort Collins restaurant with an acclaimed wine list. Mitchell said he has come up with a few red blends that he plans to enter in next year’s Colorado Governor’s Cup competition. He said fall is a great time to visit the Boulder location because guests can see wine being produced.

Moley started Vinnie Fera In 2016 to craft world-class wine in Boulder. The winery sources grapes from Colorado’s Western Slope, as well as California and Oregon.

Tours and tastings are available Thursday through Sunday (and by appointment on other days) in the grape-to-glass winery and tasting room, which also can be reserved as an intimate event space.

Carboy Winery

In a relatively short time, Carboy has expanded into one of the biggest and best known wineries in Colorado. Since launching in 2016, the business has expanded into four tasting rooms across the state, and sizable vineyards in Colorado’s Grand Valley and Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills.

The original Carboy Winery and tasting room is in Littleton, and a second tasting room on Capitol Hill in Denver has a courtyard and events space. A third location is in the infamous Gold Pan Saloon on Breckenridge’s Main Street. Finally, Carboy Winery’s Estate vineyard and tasting room in Palisade looks out over Mount Garfield and the famed Book Cliff Mountains.

Carboy also prides itself on environmental stewardship, through reduced water use, sustainable tasting room practices and donations to Zero Foodprint, which supports eco-conscious agriculture. CEO Kevin Webber says the winery has saved millions of bottles from being produced by simply dropping lines from their tanks to taps in the tasting room.

Blanchard Family Wines

Mark and James Blanchard operate three Colorado tasting rooms for their limited-availability boutique wines. Mark managed a specialty liquor store after graduating from college. Meanwhile, James was stationed at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. He regularly flew helicopters over nearby vineyards, then started to visit the tasting rooms and collect fine wines.

They turned their passion for both ends of the wine business into a winemaking operation in Healdsburg, California. Family ties and 15 years of James’ military service in Colorado drew the brothers to expand into the Centennial State to both source grapes and serve wine. James says he enjoys working with so many of the state’s winery owners, both personally and professionally. Blanchard hosts the Colorado Wine Walk, which gives James a chance to hang out with great wine minds.

Blanchard now has tasting rooms in two of the state’s best micro-districts: The diverse Dairy Block in downtown Denver and the airy and inviting Exchange in Old Town Fort Collins. A third location recently opened off West Sixth Avenue in east Golden.

All three locations serve their own award-winning wines alongside other fine Colorado wines. The Denver and Fort Collins locations also serve Colorado-sourced ciders and food.

Slaymaker Cellars

Cris and Ken Slaymaker’s name may sound like a character out of “Game of Thrones,” so it is the perfect moniker for a business that follows 12,000 years of tradition in making mead, or honey wine. Mead is believed to be the first fermented beverage humans crafted. Slaymaker’s team sources top-quality, ethically sourced local honey to create their mead.

Slaymaker is a workers’ cooperative and operates as a benefit corporation, focused on responsible and sustainable business practices.

The mead is available at Slaymaker’s bright and inviting tasting room in Idaho Springs, which hosts weekly game nights and other events, and at spirits stores around Colorado.

Silver Vines Winery

Jeff and Danny Chayer opened Silver Vines Winery in 2011, and watched Olde Town Arvada grow around them from a quiet suburb to a significant destination full of shops, bars and restaurants. Silver Vines now draws those crowds with live music and 15 varieties of wine.

The winery is a family affair. After Danny passed away in 2017, Jeff’s partner Kristin became a co-owner. Now their young daughters also spend plenty of time in the tasting room, pretending to serve and entertaining guests.

Before settling in Colorado, Jeff worked at wineries in Texas, Oregon and Washington. He still sources grapes from the Washington wineries where he worked, in addition to Palisade grapes.

After a bumpy start during the pandemic, the Chayers opened a second tasting room off Pearl Street in Boulder, which also has a private events space. Two locations keep Jeff and Kristin busy. As Jeff notes, “For some people, it’s a hobby, but for us, we’re all in.”

This article is in the September-October issue of our print magazine. Click here to read the full magazine online.