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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
1: Denver Wine Radio Debut and How Many Wineries in Colorado
Feb 14, 2018
1: Denver Wine Radio Debut and How Many Wineries in Colorado
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
Denver Wine Radio with Paul Bonacquisti and Cha Cha Chavez, presented by Bonacquisti Wine Company and Cha's Back in the Day Cafe. It took me by surprise. Took me by surprise. All right. I like the big voice guy.
0:17
[laughs] Denver Wine Radio [laughs] Back- Makes us sound real official. Hey, how's everybody doing? It's, uh, Saturday in the Mile High City, and wow, I'm watching some snow come down.
0:27
This is, uh, the debut, uh, show of, uh, Denver Wine Radio. I'm Paul Bonacquisti. I'm a winemaker and, um, and I own a winery here in Denver.
0:37
And, uh, I got my guest in the studio, Doug Caskey, the executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board. Um, hi, Doug. Hey. You, you came down- Great to be here...
0:48
you came down from Boulder, man, and- Actually, I'm glad to be here. [laughs] Was it w- For a minute I wasn't sure... worse in Boulder, or what? Uh, actually it w- I think visibility was worse down here in Denver.
0:57
Oh, wow, yeah. I know, and it was a little bit slippery, uh... I just came from, uh, over here on the north side and, uh, it was a little bit slow coming, coming downtown.
1:05
So, uh, yeah, if you're out there, uh, you know, be careful driving around. It's still coming down. And, uh, and, um, my co-host, Cha Cha Chavez, she is, she is on her way to the studio. [laughs] Be careful, Cha.
1:19
But, uh, the whole idea of this show is, uh, really just to, to talk about wine in general, and then, uh, with a little bit of focus on Colorado wine.
1:27
And, uh, also with, uh, with Cha Cha, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about, uh, music too. It's a good mix. It's a good mix. Wine and music. Can't complain.
1:35
Well, you know, because I was thinking about this and, and music, music and wine are, are, um, very similar in respects to... Okay, there's thousands of types of, of music out there. Yep, yep. All different genres.
1:51
There's thousands of different types of wines, all different, uh, genres from locations around the world, and styles. Something for everybody, you know? That's right.
1:57
A different style that, that somebody's gonna like somewhere. Definitely. Even if you don't. That's right.
2:02
So, uh, it's our job to, uh, listen to as much music as we can and taste as much wine as we can to see what we like. Absolutely. All right.
2:09
So, hey, so, uh, tell us about, uh, you know, the, the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board. What's that all about? Um, lot of pe- and the, you know, the Department of Ag and all that. Sure.
2:19
Well, we are part of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and the, the legislature created a wine board back in 1990, uh, which was actually way ahead of their time.
2:28
They were really looking forward, uh, to the future of our industry, and it's been very helpful. Uh, there's a dedicated excise tax, which is, um, three quarters of a penny on every bottle of wine we sell in Colorado.
2:42
[laughs] Wow.
2:42
[laughs] Doesn't sound like much, but it adds up and it gets us, um, you know, money with, that we can use to fund research, that Colorado State does for us over on the Western Slope and up in Fort Collins, as well as do a little bit of marketing.
2:58
Uh, so people may have seen the billboards around town, uh, during the summer or in the train stations at DIA during the holidays.
3:06
We're, we're trying to get the word out and get people thinking about Colorado wine so that when they- Yeah... see your bottle on a shelf, uh, they'll pick it up and try it and go, "Hey, this is good."
3:15
Yeah, that's, that's the idea. Absolutely. And, um, I've, I have seen- I saw the billboards all, all over town. Uh, I like- I notice that stuff, but, uh, hopefully a lot of people did as well.
3:25
We hear, we hear a lot back. Um, uh, the billboards I think are great.
3:28
Um, actually, the airport, uh, train stations, uh, maybe have the biggest impact because people are standing there waiting for a train to take them back to- Sure...
3:36
baggage claim, and they're, they're looking for something to do, so they're reading the information we put up there, and they're surprised about the number of wineries in the state and- Yeah...
3:45
where, where the wineries are all over. Yeah, where... And, and, yeah, so let's talk about that. How many, how many wineries are there, uh, sort of officially? [laughs] Well- Or unofficially...
3:53
officially that's a moving target- Yeah... because somebody's always opening, closing, taking a, a sabbatical. About 145. Wow, yeah. That's- A- and a majority of those are on the Front Range.
4:05
Yeah, we crossed that, we crossed that threshold, uh, a couple, two, three years ago- Yeah... something like that. Yeah.
4:10
And now even though the Front Range wineries are generally very, very tiny, uh, you're a big winery compared to a lot of them. [laughs] I don't think so. [laughs] Um,
4:20
uh, yeah, they're, those wineries are actually making more wine than the rest of the state now, so that's, uh, that's something new as of last year, I believe. Yeah.
4:28
But, um, you know, the heart of grape-growing areas over in the Grand Valley w- between Palisade and Grand Junction along the Colorado River.
4:37
About 80% of our grapes come from that area, and then another 10% or more comes from the West Elks AVA, which is around Paonia and, uh, Hotchkiss- Yeah... in Delta County. And you know what's interesting?
4:48
When I, I, I mention that to people, they're like, "What?" You know, they... I mean, really, Paonia, Hotchkiss, is, are two little tiny towns that- Yeah. [laughs]...
4:56
uh, unless you've been through there, you, you kinda don't know where that's at. Yeah, uh- It's somewhere over there It's somewhere over there.
5:00
[laughs] And, uh, you know, after, after Palisade peaches, Paonia peaches are, are the, the next, uh, big crop in the state of, of fruit.
5:09
And anywhere you can grow peaches, cherries, apricots, apples, you can usually grow grapes. So that's why we're kinda focused on the Western Slope over there. Yeah.
5:17
Although, a lot of growers on the Front Range are now experimenting with some of the cold-tolerant grapes, what, uh, some people call hybrids.
5:25
They're, they're a cross between the European grape varieties and, um, a- and some Native American species- Right... so they're able to withstand, uh, much colder temperatures for longer periods.
5:38
They ripen usually a little sooner. So those are things we can grow on the Front Range. Yeah. Um, yeah, and there is some of that going on, I know, up, uh, up near Fort Lupton- Mm-hmm... with, um, uh, Bob [laughs]
5:53
I just went blank. Bob, uh, Bob Stahl. Bob Stahl. The River Garden, yeah. River Garden. Yeah, yeah. [laughs] There you go.
5:58
So yeah, he's, he's growing some, uh, some hybrids there and, uh- So yeah, and that's, that's, uh, some things that I, I've only tinkered with a little bit. I still stick with Vernifera.
6:09
Well, everybody is tinkering at this point- Yeah... 'cause it's, you know, y- they are different grapes to grow a- and prune and, and, um, different in the winery as well.
6:20
A lot of people are finding great success though with blending, and I think that's kind of where the, the future's gonna go.
6:26
You add a little bit of Chambourcin to your Merlot, and you've got a whole new and, and more exciting wine. Yeah. And then the, um, so the main grapes, um, let's talk about that for a second. Um,
6:38
over in Palisade, uh, probably the big three, I always call them the big three, [laughs] are the, the main grapes still, that are still grown in the state, which Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
6:48
Right, and, and last year, uh, Cabernet Sauvignon, last year meaning, uh, the 2017 harvest- Right... Cabernet Sauvignon came out on top.
6:55
Um, so you know, i- it's always been kind of back and forth between Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. But that was definitely, uh, t- it took the lead last year. Um,
7:06
Cabernet Franc, which is, uh, an earlier ripening version of Cabernet Sauvignon, they're all relatives, uh, d- also does really, really well here- Yes...
7:15
and that has something that has distinguished Colorado, um, in a lot of competitions. And, um, uh, so we love- A- We love Cabernet Franc as well. We do. And, um,
7:26
yeah, so but the, uh, but historically because of the, the big three being planted, I mean, that's what was initially planted- Well, you know-... kinda and-... when they started planting in the- Hey, listen...
7:35
'70s and '80s- Right... they said, "Hey, what sells?" And, and Chardonnay and Merlot were, were good, uh, good sellers back then- Right... and still are.
7:44
Um, and it was good fortune that they're also well-suited to Colorado s- because Merlot especially likes that earlier, uh, earlier harvest, and, and Chardonnay's pretty cold-tolerant in itself. Yeah.
7:55
So they, um, so yeah, all along the way, uh, grapes, grapes are being planted. We're figuring out what, what works in the state, and, and those are still g- those are great grapes that grow well here. They, they are.
8:08
A- and they still do well.
8:09
We still make, I think, some of the best Merlot you can find, um, in, in the country actually, 'cause our, our Merlots, you know, we have that nice, uh, cool-down during the summer days, and that gives us a real nice acidity to the Chardonnay.
8:23
It's more like Chablis than, uh, than white Burgundy. Yeah, and that's, um, yeah, so that hot days, cool nights that we, we always hear about- Yeah...
8:31
that's key to, to growing grapes, and, and we have that obviously here in Colorado. We're, we're really blessed in that, yes. Yeah. So. So, um, so Colorado, um, has just been named one of the 10 best wine getaways,
8:49
and, um, we're gonna talk about that coming up. Okay, yeah. Yeah, what do you think? We are, we are excited about that. It's 10 best in the world. Oh, well excuse me. Yeah. [laughs] 10 best in the world, we're...
9:01
[laughs] Yeah, and we'll, we'll discuss that and where and, uh, who came up with that, and, uh, that's coming up after the break. We really appreciate you listening here. It's, uh, Denver Wine Radio on Mile High Sports.
9:13
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