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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
40: A Surprise Visit with Dan and Michelle of Continental Divide Winery
Jun 22, 2022
40: A Surprise Visit with Dan and Michelle of Continental Divide Winery
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
[upbeat music] You're listening to Denver Wine Radio, the podcast about Colorado wine. My name is Paul Bonacorsi.
0:10
I'm the winemaker at Bonacorsi 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.
0:33
[upbeat music] Hey, welcome everybody to Denver Wine Radio. Special guest in the house today, and I mean special because they surprised me. They came in and rolled me.
0:44
[laughs] It's, uh, it's Dan Kraft and Michelle Lemaire from Continental Divide Winery. Welcome to the show. Thank you. [laughs] Hi. Hi.
0:55
[laughs] Well, before we get into about Continental Divide Winery, tell everybody what you did today to me.
1:01
Well, our owner wanted us to have a normal taste room experience on our annual staff training, so we, we told you that we were teachers at a teacher conference [laughs] from around the country. [laughs] That's right.
1:14
They rolled up in a van, and it did, it looked like you, you guys came from a conference, and they said, uh, I said, "Hey, you guys ready to taste some wine?" "Yeah." And, uh, here they come.
1:25
They came on in, and so we went through the, I went through the spiel, talked about my wines, you tasted my wines, they all played dumb. I asked them some questions about teachers.
1:36
[laughs] And they, uh, they were like, "Oh." They didn't really wanna answer that question. And, and then at the end, uh, they said, "Hey," uh, yeah, you guys rolled me like Undercover Boss.
1:47
[laughs] [laughs] So, all right, well, welcome, uh, to, to the winery, and welcome to Denver Wine Radio. Glad to have you. Thanks for taking a few minutes to, to talk about Continental Divide.
1:58
So tell me, tell me all about Continental Divide Winery. Absolutely. So it was started in 2016 by two families. We had the Hutchison-Bryan families, who are both, uh, husband and wife, were both professors in CU Boulder,
2:12
and then the Maltzman family who is, splits their time between California and Breckenridge.
2:16
And they just had randomly met a few years before that, and they both had two girls and two Australian shepherds and couldn't help but become friends.
2:24
And they discovered they both loved wine too, and eventually decided to make a winery in Breckenridge.
2:30
And we would produce the wines in Fairplay, but then sell them in Breckenridge, and got a big wine club really quick and became the world's highest altitude winery, which is kind of a- Yeah... neat fact as well.
2:42
So what... Yeah, give me the altitude at, in Breckenridge. Yeah, so Breckenridge is about 9,600, and then Fairplay is, uh, 9,900. Wow.
2:51
But then the first harvest we did at Kent's House, which is near Alma, so that was a 10,300, uh, number. Oh, that's- But- Oh, and that's- All of those- Oh, really?...
3:00
elevations are actually higher than any of the highest ones in South America or China that I've been able to, uh, research. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. So, so Fairplay is where you make the wine. Exactly.
3:12
That's where the, that's where the winery is. Okay, and, and how far, for, for those that [laughs] aren't familiar with the mountain towns, how far away is, uh, Breck from Fairplay?
3:22
It's about 23 miles, or half an hour drive over the Hoosier Pass, which is, uh, 11,5, and Continental Divide- Yeah... goes across that as well. So Dan, you're the winemaker. Mm-hmm. Correct.
3:36
And Michelle, you're the tasting room manager. Yeah, that's correct.
3:39
I think one of the other fun facts that we have about the winery is that we actually have a location on both sides of the Continental Divide, which is pretty cool. Yeah. That, that is amazing. So, [laughs] so the flow...
3:50
Yeah, so when you pour a glass of wine on the western slope, which way does the wine flow? [laughs] And then when you pour it on the eastern slope. [laughs] Yep. Hey, whatever. That's, that's- Into the glass. Into the...
4:00
Okay, good- [laughs] That's our Continental Divide humor right there. [laughs] Or mine, anyway. [laughs] All right, so you're not growing grapes at 9,600 feet, obviously. Definitely not, yeah.
4:11
So where, where do you source fruit and, and, and, and all that? Yeah, we've sourced, uh, mostly out of Colorado, mostly Grand Valley AVA, and work primarily with Kaibab Sauvage and Colorado Vineyard Specialist.
4:26
And then also a little bit with Talbot Vineyards, uh, Bruce Talbot. Uh, we've gotten a few wines from, uh, Hillterrace and Scott High. Mm-hmm. And then a little bit from Whitewater Hill as well. Oh, nice.
4:39
Um, and then we have dabbled a bit in Paonia, Hotchkiss area too. We did a 2018 pinot noir from, uh, a vineyard that was semi-abandoned. I named it after the owner, John Austin.
4:52
That didn't make it on the label, but- Yeah... he was the one who had been killed in a car accident, um- Oh, I didn't realize that... back in 2016, I think.
5:01
Wow And then we got a little bit out of Lee Bradley's Orchard Valley Farms and Black Bridge Winery as well. Yeah. So yeah, just a tad. There's not many grapes in Paonia, but what does come out is really nice, so.
5:13
Wow, I did not know that about John. You know, I had connected with him years ago, uh, this had to be 2009 or so, and he had a, the, a pinot noir vineyard- Yeah... that he had planted.
5:26
It was very young at the time, I wanna say three, four years old, and I actually got some fruit off of it one year. Not very, maybe, uh, 100, 200 pounds. Wow. Just wanted to try it out. Mm-hmm.
5:39
And hoping that it would, it would, you know, really come in, [laughs] in that fifth year, sixth year. So, but then it, yeah, it seemed to, at that time, uh, it just wasn't doing very well- Mm... uh, in those years.
5:52
And then we, I lost touch with John. He didn't really seem, uh, too interested [laughs] in cultivating that vineyard at the time. Hmm. Mm-hmm.
6:00
Yeah, I know after he died, the real estate agent was trying to actually manage the vineyard in 2017 and yeah, not easy, but, uh- Yeah Uh, I was still in Washington at that time, and I thought about trying to source the grapes c- even then, and have my dad- Mm-hmm...
6:15
drive them up to Washington. Oh, wow. Yeah. It didn't work out. But then in '18, Kent was able to get in touch with the new owners, and we did pull that off, so it was very different.
6:24
Yeah, by that year, you know, the drought year as well, it was very tannic, really dark. Wow. Yeah. A lot of acid and alcohol, really kind of unlike how you would expect a Pinot noir to be. [laughs] Yeah. And [laughs]
6:38
you know, we were talking about this at the tasting counter, uh, a little earlier, as you were playing dumb.
6:43
[laughs] But yeah, Pinot noir doesn't really grow in Palisade, although I've made it from a particular vineyard that actually got wiped out in, with the freeze in 2020- Mm-hmm... October, 2020.
6:57
I had tinkered with it a little bit from Paonia, and that's actually where it does grow. Al- although you get, uh, in, you know, crazy years- [laughs] Mm-hmm...
7:07
every year with Mother Nature, you never know, but overall, it i- it, it's a great place to, uh- Mm-hmm... to grow Pinot noir. Definitely, yeah.
7:14
That, you know, five to seven degrees cooler and the different soils- Yeah... makes a huge difference. So your background in... So you came from Washington? Is that where you're from originally?
7:24
I am originally from Grand Junction, uh, and then I studied- Oh, wow... at Colorado College undergrad. Really?
7:30
And after that, I, I wanted to be a ski bum my first year instead of going to go to chemistry grad school, and I said, "What can I do between now and December?" Yeah.
7:41
And people said, "Just go out to California, and you got lab experience, so someone will hire you." And I was lucky enough to work at Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino, which is a pretty top-notch family-run place.
7:53
And, uh, after that, I went to grad school in Oregon before working at Kevin White Winery in Washington, which is super small, but has some- Yeah... great accolades. All, mostly all Rhône style wines there- That's-...
8:06
that we're doing My, my daughter, who just walked up- [laughs] Yeah... a few minutes ago, she's, uh, she's at Colorado College. Nice. So just finished her first year, her freshman year. Awesome. But, um, yeah.
8:18
So Michelle, where are you from? I am from Massachusetts, actually, so- Yeah? How long you been in Colorado? Um, since 2008 is when I moved after college. Oh, nice.
8:28
And I've been working at the winery, um, mostly in the Breckenridge tasting room since 2018. And how, what got you into wine? Have you, how long have you been in, in the wine world?
8:39
Um, so my experience with wine is mostly when I lived in Nantucket, Massachusetts, just doing a lot of catering for kinda like fancier events- Mm-hmm... and working at the Continental Divide Tasting Room.
8:50
So it's been pretty fun, learning process, all of that good stuff. All right. Yeah. So tell me about the wines you make. Yeah. There's a pretty wide variety.
8:58
We tend to focus more on these red Bordeaux varietals, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc, Cab Sauv, Merlot, just because those are the ones that are, A, very sellable and h- Yeah...
9:10
high market for them, and B, what our growers tend to have available as well. Um, but we've done, you know, a lot of other wines too, a lot of whites, uh, Riesling, Chardonnay.
9:21
Gewürztraminer was the one that got us the Governor's Cup Collection last year, so that was- Yeah, congratulations on that... pretty exciting. Thank you. Yeah. The Albarinos.
9:31
Albarino is definitely the cult club favorite- [laughs]... which sadly, Kaibab, uh, doesn't have as, have for us again this year, but hopefully in 2023 we'll be back to getting some of that. Yeah. Good. Mm-hmm.
9:43
I hope so. Let's talk about the tasting room experience- Mm-hmm... in Breckenridge- Yeah... versus your Fairplay location. Mm-hmm. So what, what's it like when I come in?
9:51
Yeah, the f- well, I'll talk about the Fairplay one, and then Michelle can cover Breck. Okay. In Fairplay it's a little different, pretty slow.
9:57
You know, not many people know that we're there, even though it's right on the side of the US Highway 285. We have, that's where we have our cellar, all of our equipment. Uh- Mm-hmm...
10:06
we use a 1970s old, uh, German press, a newer destemmer, and then we like to give tours, you know, show them around, and see the cellar.
10:16
But then we also have a customized tasting experience, just because we can, uh, afford to do that given the lack of, of people over there in Fairplay. Yeah.
10:25
Also known as South Park, for those who have, uh, seen the TV show. Yeah. [laughs] And Michelle? So the smaller tasting room and the production in Fairplay makes sense 'cause of the population.
10:37
Breckenridge is obviously significantly busier, so we see, um, tons of visitors every day. Um, and it's a r- it's actually a lovely space.
10:48
We have a really nice patio, and then, um, much bigger tasting room, all dog friendly, which is one of my favorite parts besides the wine. We do pre-selected flights over there.
10:59
And also, yeah, we have a private event space called the Barrel Room as well, which is new and yeah, I would say. Mm-hmm, and the wine blending experiences too- Oh, yeah...
11:09
which is, uh, where we'll have a few different wines on keg, and people come in, and they get a s- little spreadsheet, create their own blend, and get to bottle one of them before they go home. And- The wine-...
11:21
a really neat souvenir... that's fun. Yeah. The wine blending experience is a favorite of everyone who does it. You basically do a four-flight tasting of wine, make three mini blends, and then bottle your perfect blend.
11:33
So you go home with, yeah, like Dan said, your favorite, your perfect custom wine. Nice. Yeah, that's a fun experience so, 'cause then, yeah, they can put whatever percentage they want to, to fit their, hit their palate.
11:45
Mm-hmm. Exactly. So very cool stuff. And it is amazing how sometimes, you know, you put, and any wine maker knows this, but sometimes you put 2 or 3% of something in and it's a drastic change. Yeah. You know?
11:57
Do you ever, um, have you ever found in the, in the blending class where somebody puts something together and you went, "Hmm, I, I might have to [laughs] bottle that one." [laughs] Yeah.
12:06
There's been a couple times I have those ideas, but I'm- [laughs]...
12:09
I'm sort of at heart like more like those folks we actually just visited at Balestreri, where it's I want it to be a single vineyard- You know, really pure ideal, but, you know, obviously not every wine can do that, so-
12:24
Nice... fun to play around with the blends as well as have a couple of single vineyards, yeah, like the Pinot Noir I mentioned. [laughs] All right, well, I'm getting the, it's time to go, the wrap up. You're- Yeah...
12:35
you're gonna head to the next winery and- Pull another trick... you're gonna bum rush them too. [laughs] [laughs] So, well, thank you for, thank you for coming on today. I really appreciate it.
12:46
Uh, I encourage anyone, if you're traveling through the mountains, you're in Breckenridge, you're in Fairplay, you gotta stop by Continental Divide Winery and check out their, uh, check out your stuff. I can't wait.
12:54
I, I gotta stop by. Absolutely, yeah. I've never been. It's, it's different, yeah, and even though it's a lot of the same fruit from Palisade, everything is happening at that high altitude, and it does impact things, so.
13:06
Yeah. Yeah, 'cause I, I really... Wait, well, we won't, we're gonna ask one more quick question- [laughs]...
13:12
because I used to, uh, there used to be a winery in, uh, in Conifer, John Soucy was a winemaker there, and, uh, he, the, the temperature, because it got so cold in the fall right away at that elevation, at h- at high elevation, that he had to have special concrete blankets made to wrap his tanks [laughs] so he could finish fermentation.
13:33
Hm. Yeah. So, and, and so what, what do you ha- do you have any, uh, special needs like that where it gets too cold during, during fermentation, and you gotta, you gotta warm it up? Not too much, yeah.
13:42
I've been, I do just use the n- the ambient heating. Wow.
13:46
I haven't even used the fish tank heaters recently, but I've had a couple times where it was stuck fermentation that I have to redo the whole thing and add a little bit at a time, and- Yeah... it's a huge pain.
13:57
But yeah, it's, it's neat that we, able to use no artificial cooling in the winery, and it stays just cool enough during the summer that we can pull that off, and then we can use the cold to our advantage to cold stabilize and things like that- All right...
14:13
during the, the colder months. [laughs] Well, good. Yeah. All right, Dan Kraft, winemaker, Michelle Lemaire, tasting room manager from Continental Divide Winery, thank you for coming down to, uh, Denver Wine Radio today.
14:25
Thank you, Paul. Thank you. I can't wait to come back. I think I'm gonna try to make your, uh, vinyl. Oh, yeah, that's right. [laughs] Gonna come for Vinnie & Vinyl or even live music, so all right. Thank you.
14:37
You're, you're welcome. Cheers. That's our show for this week. Thank you so much for listening to Denver Wine Radio. Your homework for the week is to go out and taste some Colorado wine.
14:48
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.
15:00
And remember, put some altitude in your glass. Produced and distributed by the Sound Off Media company.
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