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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
39: Jenne Baldwin-Eaton
Jun 16, 2022
39: Jenne Baldwin-Eaton
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0:00
[upbeat music] You're listening to Denver Wine Radio, the podcast about Colorado wine. My name is Paul Bonacquisty.
0:10
I'm the winemaker at Bonacquisty Wine Company, an urban winery I launched back in 2006 in Denver, Colorado, where I've been making and learning about wine ever since.
0:20
I'm sitting down with other wineries and wine experts to find out what makes Colorado wine so unique, and to help you find the wines you like to drink. And now, let's put some altitude in your glass.
0:35
Okay, so tell me about your start in Colorado wine. [laughs] Um- So that goes back to 1994? Yes Is that correct? It does.
0:46
I moved here in, moved to Grand Junction in 1993, right out of college, and I just love this area for outdoors, hiking, rafting, skiing.
0:58
And I was a personal trainer in a health club, 'cause my degree's Exercise Physiology with a Chemistry minor, 'cause I didn't know what I would do with the chemistry.
1:07
So I was doing that and I thought, "You know, at 24, this isn't really a career." And I really missed the chemistry side of school.
1:18
And at the time there was no breweries, but I went to Chico State University, and we had Sierra Nevada Brewing Company right there, and did tours quite often. Mm-hmm. So I thought, "Well, no breweries.
1:31
There's wineries here." There was nine wineries in the state at the time. Wow. I thought I was just gonna ask how many were there, but yeah, nine.
1:40
And I think locally there was f- four, um, here in Grand Junction, Palisade area. And so I got up the nerve to go to Colorado Mountain Wine Festival. Uh, so '94 was my first wine festival.
1:55
I've worked every year since then. And I went to a, a seminar where each of the nine winemakers got up and talked about how they got started in the wine industry.
2:08
And afterwards, luckily there was a tasting, so I could get up the nerve [laughs] definitely a lot easier. Went and spoke with Rick Hammond, who was the state viticulturist- Mm...
2:20
and asked if any of them were big enough to hire a chemist. And he said, "Go talk to Eric Bruner there at Plum Creek Cellars."
2:27
And yeah, I went and talked to him, and I worked part-time in the lab for a year in the, and still had my other job. And I'm like, "You know what, Eric? I love this, but I can't just work part-time.
2:40
I need to drop the other job." So he hired me. So it was really, it was just kind of luck of the timing that I got in when I did, so. Yeah.
2:50
[laughs] You reminded me of, of something when, uh, when you mentioned Wine Fest back then. So I went to, this would've been around the same time, early '90s,
3:03
I went to, I was in Snowmass for a softball tournament- Okay... one summer, and they had a little beer festival going on one day. So we went to this beer festival, and there was one winemaker there. There was one winery.
3:17
[laughs] And so, so I spent a lot of time talking to him, and I don't, I don't remember who it was, but he was, he told me he retired. He bought a, he bought us- [laughs]... [laughs] a vineyard and, and a winery,
3:34
and he'd never worked so hard in his life. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] So that always stuck with me, but it, it didn't stop me from getting into the wine industry. [laughs] Right.
3:46
Well, and for me, it, it was such an opportunity to work with Eric Bruner. He was a home winemaker. He was a geologist. Um, really had a, a knack for researching the heck out of everything.
3:59
And, um, had taken classes, him and Parker had gone out to UC Davis. So he really taught me everything he knew. And then he had Parkinson's disease, and that really made it so that I wanted to learn and help him out.
4:17
Mm-hmm. So I was just basically connected to him for several years and just soaking up as much as I could and helping him out.
4:26
So it really taught me everything from the ground floor up, which I think is a great way to, to learn the business. Yeah, definitely. So nine, there was nine wineries and you. [laughs] Yeah.
4:40
Yeah, they used to call me the baby wine wench, 'cause- [laughs] Um- And what, but what was it like back then? Uh, it, I mean, I mean just in the, the, as the industry was just getting started really. It really was.
4:54
Everybody worked together because there were so few. Um, I was definitely the youngest by about 30, 40 years.
5:04
[laughs] Uh, we worked with Parker Carlson a lot, and it was just, we were s- really still trying to figure out how to produce a high-quality wine from grapes that are grown in high elevation, triple digits in the summer.
5:19
Mm-hmm. So we got to do a lot of research and trials. So it was a great time to learn and know how we started and where we're at now. Yeah. What were some of the grapes that didn't work out?
5:35
[laughs] Pinot noir in the Grand Valley. Yeah. Um, we had pinot noir planted there at Plum Creek Winery, and it would start off great during fermentation and after fermentation, and then it would just kind of fizzle out.
5:53
You know, it was just it, very baked components to it, and we finally just realized that it was just hot, too hot here in the valley. Mourvèdre needed a longer growing season- Sangiovese.
6:08
Really loved the Sangiovese, but we only got a red probably every fourth year, and it was so labor-intensive out in the vineyard- Mm-hmm... that it just didn't make sense to keep that, so that got pulled up. Yeah.
6:20
That was something I, I, uh, wrote a note to ask you about, was Sangiovese specifically- [laughs]... because, well, because Italian varietals don't really do well in Colorado overall, but, uh...
6:32
And I knew Plum Creek, you guys had made Sangiovese for a long time, quite a, quite a while. We had. Yeah. Uh, we tried all kinds of things. I even brought Sangiovese in November 10th- [laughs]...
6:44
because we had a nice long growing season. Yeah. And if we could get it to ripen fully, uh, it was really a nice wine, and it made a really nice dry rosé.
6:56
However, it was so labor-intensive out in the vineyard, it didn't financially make sense economically. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, yeah, 'cause- So that was a hard one to pull up.
7:07
Yeah, 'cause I think, 'cause so I've been working with a, a small four-acre vineyard of Sangiovese since 2016, and, and I know there's, there's one other vineyard, and I'm blank on the winery. I just went.
7:22
But they m- I know they make a Sangiovese, and I don't know of any other that's left. Um- No... yeah. And after the freeze in 2020, there's quite a few vineyards that had been probably
7:34
not optimum cultivar for that space- Mm-hmm... after that freeze, so they didn't replant. They tore some of the stuff out, so- Yeah... who knows if it's still there.
7:44
And then that's, and that's been my experience, uh, [laughs] these last six years with ripening. I made red a couple of times, and then I finally just said, "You know what? We're gonna make rosé every year."
7:58
[laughs] So- It makes a great rosé. It does. It does. And, and same thing, we were in, well, you know, the, the... We were into October, and so this would've been, uh...
8:11
So there was no fruit last year, but '19 and '20 were just... There, there was actually some good conditions if we coulda just let it hang- [laughs] Right...
8:21
past, but we got, that freeze was coming in, and there was just no way. So yeah, so we picked it and made rosé, but, uh, yeah, it's a shame. It has such uneven ripening.
8:31
And we tried cutting off shoulders on the clusters 'cause they were, they're so huge, over a pound a piece, which is unusual for a cultivar. But one year I made a port. [laughs] Did you really?
8:43
Eric and I, um, we had a hailstorm come through in September. It wasn't ripe obviously.
8:50
Um, but it had bird nets on it, and so we let it hang, and then we processed the grapes while those berries that had been sliced by the hail had dehydrated, but they still had sugar. Mm.
9:02
And so when we processed it and started fermentation, it kept soaking up more and more sugar, and it actually fermented out to 17.9% alcohol. Wow. [laughs] They say, well, you know, the yeast won't do, but- Right...
9:16
in this one instance. Uh, so we weren't sure what to do, so we just put it in neutral oak for a year, and then the next year we brought in Sangiovese grapes, pressed 'em, and used that juice to sweeten it.
9:29
And so it was a port style, not made in your usual way, but very popular. And of course, people are like, "Are you p- gonna make that again?" I'm like, "I, I don't even know how I could make that again."
9:41
[laughs] Just a freak. [laughs] Yeah. Wow, that's fun. So anyway, so you were at, uh, you were at Plum Creek for 22 years? 22. Yes. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So- Um, I took over as head winemaker in '99.
10:00
Wow. And so I was, um, head winemaker, onsite manager. Did it all [laughs] for the rest of the time. No, that's great. Well, let's talk about now.
10:10
[laughs] But, well, after you left Plum Creek, then, then you went into, uh, higher education. I did.
10:15
It, it was kind of a funny event in the sense that about 11 years ago I was on a search committee, uh, with several winemakers and growers from the Grand Valley here talking with the college, you know, "Are we big enough to have an education program?"
10:35
And we finally decided, yes, but I never thought I was gonna be the one teaching at the college. [laughs] It just kind of worked out.
10:43
And, you know, Eric had been my mentor, and had really, really not only taught me everything he knew, but he also got me so excited about the wine industry here in Colorado.
10:55
And so it was kind of time I wanted to pay that forward and get that next generation excited about what we're doing here in Colorado, and yeah. So I left Plum Creek and started the program from ground zero.
11:09
[laughs] First program in Colorado. Yeah. Um, so that was, it's been a challenge, but it has been a lot of fun also. It's- And that's at, and that's at Western, Western Colorado Community College? It is.
11:23
So Colorado Mesa University... Well, Western Colorado Community College is a division of Colorado Mesa University. Oh, okay. So we're the only community college in Colorado that's attached to a university.
11:36
So the community college is still CMU, but it, uh, is all the technical programs like, uh, VNE, welding, paramedic, um, aviation, culinary, all of those things. So we're all the same school but just a different branch.
11:55
Okay. So the program is, uh, so if I wanna learn to make wine- [laughs] Yeah... or get into the wine industry, it's- It's, it's very hands-on program
12:09
And certainly you can come and take a class, or you could do a certificate, which would be one year, or you could do the Associates of Applied Science, which is a two-year program. All right.
12:22
So you said hands-on, it's gonna be classroom stuff, right? Yes, um- Is that how the program is set up? It starts that way. It's, it, each of the classes build on it.
12:33
In fact, um, I remember my days in college, you know, you take a g- a general ed class of anthropology, and you load it all in the brain, and then you dump it.
12:42
And so the first thing [laughs] I told my students was, "This information is not a load it up and then dump it. You're gonna keep building on it."
12:51
So there is a point to studying so that you learn it, because the next class is then gonna build on that information. Okay. Um, so we use a, you know, we lecture on the different general broad wine making.
13:05
Uh, there's a semester of fermentation science with a lab attached to it.
13:11
There's a lab analysis class that teaches you how to run PHTA, uh, free and total sulfur dioxide, all the lab analysis that a small winery would have here in Colorado.
13:23
And then, um, there's two advanced wine-making classes where they're physically making wine. So not a lot of lecturing.
13:31
You jump in, and of course, uh, with our cold-hardy cultivars that are coming off at the end of July and beginning of August, usually harvest has already started before school starts, so it's really a hit the pavement.
13:44
[laughs] Right. Right. So how many, the first year when the, the program started, how many students did you get in? Um, I had five students that first semester. Yeah. They were all local.
13:57
Um, several of them had been home wine makers. Some were actually studying doing a bachelor's at CMU and decided to switch over. Most of our graduates either start their winery or they're working for a winery locally.
14:12
I have a couple that have been traveling around, working in California and Washington. Nice. And then, uh, Joanne started a lab analysis here in the Grand Valley also. She was a retired water chemist, so. Oh, wow. Nice.
14:27
Yeah. Very good. There is a chemistry class involved in the AAS also. [laughs] I hope so, yeah. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] So now how big, how big is the program? So how m- how many students are coming in every year?
14:39
We've pretty much averaged five to seven students per year. Mm-hmm. We've graduated, um, in the AAS, we've graduated 15 so far, but we're just,
14:53
you know, [laughs] it takes so much to get the word out that there is a program here. Yeah. It's the same as there's a wine region in Colorado. Oh, you didn't know that?
15:03
You've been living up in the Redlands for your whole life, and- [laughs]... on the other side of the valley, there's this wine region.
15:10
[laughs] So it, it's gonna take some, some work to get that out, and certainly that's been a big part of my job is recruiting and promoting, marketing at every event, so. [laughs] Yeah.
15:21
No, I th- I think it's wonderful, and it, it's, it goes back to what you said. It's about building this base of young wine makers in Colorado and- Yes... getting them get excited about the industry and- Yep... um.
15:35
And then we got the grant in, let's see, I guess it was the end of 2020, so 2021 Warren Winiarski gave a grant to Colorado Mesa University.
15:49
Part of this was for scholarships, part of it was for the program, and then 50,000 of it was to start a matching grant, and we're still working on that. We have till the end of December.
15:59
Um, but this started the Warren Winiarski/Gerald Ivancie Institute for Viticulture and Enology, and what that does is kind of builds the gap between the students in the V&E program and then builds collaboration with our industry and especially our local community.
16:20
So we do a lot of workshops with grape growers out in the vineyard, uh, wine makers also. Um, so they really get a chance to meet the community, uh, before they graduate.
16:33
Tell everyone about the significance of Warren and Gerald- [laughs]... and the history of Colorado wine. Yes, so I just got back from California actually doing an oral history with Warren Winiarski.
16:48
Gerald Ivancie, in 1968, uh, Gerald started Ivancie Cellars in Denver, and this was pretty much the first commercial Colorado winery.
17:01
And he purchased grapes from California, and on one of those trips, he met up with Warren. He had been turned on to Warren because he was looking for some more grapes. And, um, so he spoke with Warren.
17:16
Warren, at the time, was at Robert Mondavi, and the two just really hit it off and kind of had a, a vision of, of wine and the quality of wine. And so Warren came out from '68 to '70. He did three harvests here.
17:32
He was a consultant, so he flew out four to six times a year, the first time being as soon as he shipped the grapes off, then he would fly and arrive before them and do the fermentation process.
17:48
And so that's why the institute is named after both of them, just because that's kind of our start as far as wine-making, and also with grapes.
17:57
There for a while it was harder to get California grapes because they had some freezes, but then also that industry was getting more popular, so it was harder to find grapes- Mm...
18:07
and the cost of the grapes was getting a lot higher. And so if you're having to ship them to Denver, it just wasn't making sense. As far as making money on a bottle of wine. [laughs] Sure.
18:20
And, and so they came over to the Grand Valley, primarily spoke with Curtis Talley Senior first, who was a great peach grower.
18:28
And then Curtis Talley Senior hooked up with five other peach growers, and they purchased 20 acres and planted the first, uh, grapes. So that was the start of our viticulture side of things. Yeah.
18:42
And that was about 1972. Nice. Wow. [laughs] It's funny to think about that because doesn't seem like that... Well, it's not that long ago, but- It's not that long ago.
18:56
[laughs] In the, in the world, in the world of wine, and when you think about grapes and, uh, regions around the world that have been making wine for thousands of years and, and, you know, '72 is about- Yeah...
19:09
when it started in Colorado. [laughs] Yeah, we're pretty still on the infantile state of, [laughs] of wine regions. Yeah.
19:17
But we've definitely grown both in acreage and, and wineries and if Mother Nature would just cooperate a little bit more with us. [laughs] Definitely. [laughs] Hoping for that, for sure. Yeah.
19:31
What, so what, yeah, what some of the... You just recorded, uh, you, you're working on a documentary or a piece with, with Warren, Warren Wernersen? Um, so this was set up, [laughs] it's kind of funny how things happen.
19:45
Um, a couple months ago, I was contacted by a librarian at Colorado Mesa University.
19:53
She's in archive, she's in charge of the archive program at CMU, and she had come from Oregon, and she knew that Oregon had this huge oral history archive of that industry, and she had contacted me to see, you know, do we have anything like that?
20:12
Does anybody have anything like that?
20:14
And at the same time, myself and Doug Caskey and Kyle of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board have been probably over a year trying to think of how can we start this, this wine history project, um, because, you know, people, we're losing some people, and this has such a unique start that it's, there's a lot of holes to it.
20:41
So we're trying to find out exactly what's going on. So we're gonna be establishing an oral history, and this will all be in the archives of the CMU library. Oh, that's wonderful.
20:55
Yeah, looking forward to that, and it'd be accessible- Yep... to onlines. Accessible to everybody. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be really cool.
21:04
Um, so our first interview was certainly Warren in California, and even starting that project, it's like, oh, do we know this? Who can we contact for this? Because there are holes in there.
21:20
And so it's a huge project, but we're just kind of starting it at least. And I look forward to learning more because sometimes it's like, well, what made a peach grower think to plant grapes?
21:33
I know they were looking for another cash crop, but grapes aren't exactly in Colorado. It's not like the next step.
21:41
And I had gone to a seminar that two of the Ivancie kids, uh, Gerald's kids, had done a couple weeks ago, and there was a lady in the audience that, uh, went to high school with Curtis Talley Jr.
21:58
And she was saying that locally people thought his dad, Curtis Talley Senior, was a little crazy for thinking about planting grapes. So, uh, you know, how can we figure these things out in this day and age? Yeah.
22:14
[laughs] There's a lot of mavericks in this. [laughs] Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Agriculture industry here in Colorado.
22:24
[upbeat music] All right. So when you think back to, uh, all your harvests and crushes- [laughs]...
22:38
in Colorado, what grapes get you excited? I mean, what grapes do you know, like, when you get 'em, it, it's a slam dunk, you're making a, you're making a killer wine? W- well,
22:54
Sauvignon Blanc has always been one of my favorite white grapes. Yeah. And it's unfortunate that, um, there's not much acreage planted of Sauvignon Blanc.
23:05
Riesling certainly is another one, and I like Riesling because it does so well from both of our AVAs, and they're so different. Um, so I usually like to ferment them separate and then blend them for a finished product.
23:21
Uh, for reds, Cabernet Franc definitely is my favorite, although I have to say, you know, thinking back in the '90s, there were some awesome reserve Merlots that were made in this area. Mm.
23:35
But I think we're starting to etch up a little bit more in heat, and, and it's, it's different.
23:41
I think back on the '90s and early 2000 is just different than what we're seeing today, so we have to adapt, hence why education is so important, so that we can teach,
23:54
you know, where we came from, what did work, but what's, what have we learned, and they can take off from there instead of having to go through the whole process over and over each time. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah.
24:08
Who wants to do that? [laughs] I know. [laughs] Right. It was certainly the Cabernet Franc that kind of was my aha moment. 'Cause when I started at Plum Creek, I was happy to be in the lab.
24:23
Um, I did not know anything about wine. At all. I came from California and Oregon, but my family didn't really drink wine.
24:32
If they did, it was some Thunderbird [laughs] so it's not exactly, not from a wine region or family. But Eric, for the first time, had kept Cabernet Franc by itself in '92,
24:45
and he was asking me to taste this wine because, "I don't know if I should keep it separate or just keep blending it like I have in the past." And this '92 Cabernet Franc was just incredible.
24:58
I can still taste it to this day, but that really turned me on to, wow, wine can really represent so many things, and terroir, cultivar, and the winemaker all together.
25:13
So it really brought that art and science to me, and I just thought, you know, this, this is what I wanna do for a career certainly.
25:20
There's some standout vintages [laughs] that just in my short time, that they stick out in my mind. Uh, I remember 2007 was a- Yeah... it was a tough, there was a late spring freeze,
25:36
and not as many grapes at harvest time, probably about half the amount of grapes there normally was. But everything I got that year was, was really good. It was. Yeah.
25:47
I did- Just because I, I assumed because it was kind of a forced low yield [laughs] across- Right... the vineyard.
25:55
[laughs] Instead of, instead of the grower trying to pack it in, uh, you know, or, you know, get as many tons per acre. But anyway, that's, that stands out to me. Yeah, I remember that Riesling from that year.
26:08
Worked out really, really well. It was one of the hardest ones to make though, because the grapes didn't really ripen from down in the Paonia-Hotchkiss area. Mm.
26:19
Um, so had to use some of the tools in the tool belt, but in the end it turned out really lovely.
26:25
Educating the general public on Colorado wine, and then to teach them the differences between the two growing regions that, that, that we have, um, is another thing too.
26:38
'Cause there, there's o- there's been times here where I've been able to pour side by side, have, uh, something from Grand Valley and something from the West Elks, just to let people try the difference.
26:49
But, but overall, it, it just seems like [laughs] you gotta just get the Colorado thing out there. Right. Uh, you know, and then get 'em hooked.
27:00
Yeah, I think having so many years, and especially those early years, it's just really expanded my experience profile [laughs] and what has worked, what hasn't worked.
27:11
You know, if Mother Nature gives you this curve ball, you really just have to kind of adapt to your starting ingredient and where are they at.
27:20
And certainly with a commercial winery you have to be consistent year after year, but especially in Colorado, how you get there is very different year after year. Yeah.
27:30
Are you excited about the, the new, um, cultivars, the new, um, the g- the hybrid grapes? I, I can't remember the, what the term was that Horace used. The cold, cold hearty cultivars. Cold hearty cultivars, yeah.
27:45
Or hybrids. Yeah. [laughs] I get confused. Um, certainly they're bred for different reasons to maintain that, be able to survive in the winter at a colder temperature.
27:56
Um, but through the school, that has been a fun part the last six years of being at the college, in that we've done a lot of trials on those hybrids.
28:06
Because we were small scale, we weren't a large scale, and coming from a large winery, a large Colorado winery, you know, I was never able to really do trials at that size because all my tanks were large.
28:21
And so to go to the college and be able to do lots of trials, and then give that information back to the growers, other winemakers, that's kind of what the institute is set up to do also, has been really fun.
28:37
And, and this way the students are also learning what everybody else in the industry is learning at the same time with these cultivars. Yeah. Some have worked out great. Some- [laughs]...
28:48
we haven't quite figured out yet. It's just like how we were in the early '90s with vinifera. We didn't get it right straight off the bat.
28:56
Certainly we had to d- change trellis, um, we've changed clones, sites, so we're just kind of back to the drawing board with these new cultivars. Yeah. They're, they're exciting.
29:09
Uh, some of the ones I've tasted, and Petit Pearl is, um, we just released a Petit Pearl. Oh, nice.
29:16
People are liking it, and, and it's, it's surprising to me just this past weekend, pe- I had a handful of people that were excited 'cause it was something new. Oh, okay. Where, where I feel like- [laughs]...
29:30
maybe this is my own bias, [laughs] but I feel like- [laughs]... let's say 10 years ago somebody, uh, they might have curled their nose at, "What? Yeah, what? Petit what?" You know, I don't know. Yeah.
29:42
I think we're dealing with a different consumer right now, and yeah, they're wanting to try new stuff. They don't wanna drink- Yeah... what their parents drank, and- [laughs]...
29:52
anything new or different they wanna give it a try. So that is helpful for us certainly.
29:59
But with the r- with the reds especially, there's just some stuff we have to learn, and that only is gained each harvest when we do a different fermentation. Yeah. So are you li- you're, you're retired from academia?
30:15
I [laughs] Is that, is that what, is that a- It doesn't feel like it. Um, but I- [laughs] I know, it sounds like you're doing a lot of stuff. [laughs] I am doing a lot of stuff. I have retired.
30:25
I'm not in the office, but it doesn't mean that I'm not still working on stuff and- Still I'm working on the archive project and- Yeah... working on the institute still.
30:37
And one thing the institute had done was a smoke, uh, impact database collection. So when we had that Pine Gulch fire in 2020,
30:47
me and students, we started collecting samples and fermenting them out, bottling them so that...
30:55
And we have sent off for some numbers, but we still have that database to learn from as far as what impact do these have on the wine, because I don't think it's our last fire.
31:07
Um, but I think they'll be pretty sporadic, so we wanna learn as much as we can.
31:12
So I've been doing a lot with the California, Oregon and Washington, uh, Smoke Task Force, um, just learning as they're learning so that when we're faced with that, we have information to give, uh, the community, so.
31:29
That's great. Um, I'm glad you're not packing it in completely. [laughs] No. No, I'm not. It, it's more just taking a break from semester teaching- Oh, okay...
31:38
'cause once you're tied in that semester, that's August to May. Yeah, my husband and I would like to travel a little bit.
31:45
As you can imagine, 28 years in the wine industry, I haven't done much of that, so we'll do some of that, but it doesn't mean that I'm gonna stop everything, and I'm certainly 110% Colorado wine industry, so.
32:01
[laughs] Love that. Yeah, lo- yeah, I, well, I want you to continue, yeah, share your knowledge and, um, you know, help, help make the Colorado wine industry better, so.
32:12
And congratulations, you were just mentioned in Westword. They did a piece last week. Yes. Six women- [laughs]... uh, influential women in the Colorado, or changing the Colorado wine industry, and you were mentioned, so.
32:27
Yeah. So well done. That was awesome, and it was a great group of women, kind of all from... You know, it wasn't just winemakers. Really business and wine guild and all over. So
32:40
it, it's fun to see, and I think in Colorado we have had more women a part, as far as winemakers. Certainly when I started in '94, you know, we had Sharon Smith of Grand River. We had Joan Mathewson. Mm.
32:54
Joan Mathewson of Terra Creek was the first classically trained or educated oenologist from Switzerland. So women have been a big part of this industry.
33:06
I'm not quite sure wh- [laughs] why we find ourselves in Colorado, but maybe, you know, it takes a pretty independent person in general in this area, whether they're growing grapes or making wine or a business, and I think independent women just find themselves in Colorado, so.
33:25
[laughs] Yeah. Who knows? [laughs] Who knows, yeah. Yes, they do. I hope they keep finding their way, because that... And you know, it was something I, when I first o- opened and started,
33:36
uh, this would've been 2006, I was surprised, um, I mean, I don't know why I should've been. [laughs] I shouldn't be. But there, I know there was a lot of women winemakers, and leading the way too.
33:50
I mean, 'cause there was you, Jackie Thompson from Boulder Creek- Yeah... and Michelle Cleveland at Creekside, and of course Nancy Janes, uh, Whitewater Hill- Whitewater Hill...
34:02
who just recently retired or s- sold the winery. But, and all g- [laughs] great wines, not just, hey, women winemakers, but leading the way with the quality of wine they were making, so. I agree. Um, but it is different.
34:17
Um, I remember in the '90s going out to, uh, wine conferences in Missouri or California, Oregon, or even taking classes at UC Davis, you know, if there was 50 winemakers
34:32
learning at UC Davis, there was maybe two women. Wow. Yeah.
34:37
You know, it's a very male-dominated, so it's, it's interesting to see that here in Colorado, but it has been present since, since the beginning, so it's awesome to see. It is, and I hope, hope we see more of that.
34:50
Yes, definitely. [laughs] So well, thanks for coming on today. Oh, I appreciate it. [laughs] This was fun.
34:56
[laughs] We didn't, sorry you w- if you were here in person, we would have, uh, opened some, some sort of bottle of something. [laughs] Yeah.
35:04
'Cause I always love to taste on the show, but, um, well, you'll just have to tell me what are you, what are you gonna open tonight? Hmm.
35:12
Um, you know, well, I just brought some wine back from school, some of the hybrids, uh, so I've been trying to kind of, now I have some time to actually taste through those wines that we bottled up, so some Lucressant, Traminette.
35:28
Itasca was a new one- Hmm... this last harvest and is showing very well. And then some of the reds too, just to be able to kinda think about them and what type of wine they produced, so.
35:41
Sounds like you got a party going on tonight. [laughs] Well, I won't be doing all of those. [laughs] Oh, okay. But I have been trying to do that as I've been at home, certainly. Well, good. All right.
35:55
Well, thanks Jenny, appreciate it. Thanks, Paul. [laughs] Yeah. [upbeat music] That's our show for this week. Thank you so much for listening to Denver Wine Radio.
36:05
Your homework for the week is to go out and taste some Colorado wine.
36:10
If you have any questions or comments, or just wanna let us know what you're drinking, go to denverwineradio.com, where you can email us or leave us a voice message. We'd love to hear from you.
36:21
And remember, put some altitude in your glass. Produced and distributed by the Sound Off Media company
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