Archive
Subscribe
Search
Login
Subscribe
Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
9: Meet Michelle Cleveland from Creekside Cellars
Feb 27, 2018
9: Meet Michelle Cleveland from Creekside Cellars
15
30
00:00
09:59
IN THIS EPISODE
LISTEN ON
Apple Podcasts
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Spotify
YouTube
YouTube
Pocket Casts
Pocket Casts
Castro
Castro
FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
[upbeat music] Denver Wine Radio with Paul Bonacquisti and Cha Cha Chavez, presented by Bonacquisti Wine Company and Cha's Back in the Day Cafe.
0:13
I knew before between the two of us guys, you know I love you more. It took some time- Hey, son of a gun, it's 12:01 in the Mile High City. You ready to drink some wine today? [laughs] 'Cause it's Denver Wine Radio.
0:28
I'm Paul Bonacquisti. Cha Cha Chavez, my friend and co-host, of course she's en route right now, 'cause you know how brutal it is driving down from Thornton on a, on a Saturday. So hey, uh, but she'll be here any minute.
0:42
Um, today, uh, we're talking about Cabernet Franc, not Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet Franc, which happens to be Colorado's cab, all right?
0:51
It's, uh, super delicious, grows fantastic in Colorado, and, um, my special guest in studio today is Michelle Cleveland.
1:00
She's the winemaker at Creekside Cellars in Evergreen, and, uh, she's one of the best winemakers in the state. Yeah, I'm going on record, I'm saying it, and she, she's probably in my top two, okay?
1:12
And I'm not, I'm not the other one, okay? [laughs] So, uh, hi Michelle, how's it going? Great, Paul. Thanks for having me on today. Yeah, great to have you here. So, uh, you're doing cool stuff up at Creekside Cellars.
1:23
Um, you, you, uh, Creekside Cellars was just named, uh, Colorado Winery of the Year. We were- Yeah... and we are very excited about that. Yeah. Very excited. We're, I'm excited about that too. That's, that's awesome.
1:35
And that's, uh, from, uh, CAVE, which is the, uh, Colorado, um, Association of, uh, Viticultural and Enology. Yep. That's our, uh, our state, uh, you know, rah, rah board, helps us all out, all the wineries in Colorado.
1:48
But, uh, that was, uh, really, that's a great prestigious award, and, uh, that's all, uh, uh, 'cause of all the great things you're doing up at Creekside, so. We're trying to do our best. Yeah.
1:56
We're gonna put Colorado on the map. That's what we're here for, putting Colorado on the map.
2:00
So, uh, yeah, so tell us, uh, just give, you know, give us a little bit of history about, uh, Creekside and, and, and, and, and you. Absolutely, yeah.
2:09
So Creekside Cellars became a bonded winery in 1996, and Bill and Anita, um, had a dream, you know? Everybody starts in the garage.
2:18
Bill started making wine in his garage, and, um, he loves, uh, anything and anything to do with wine, Italian food.
2:26
He's an excellent chef, but he took his dream to the next step and opened Creekside Cellars in November of 2000. And, uh, in '02, purchased some land out in Palisade, planted a vineyard.
2:39
So not only do we, um, make wine, but we also have our own vineyard, which really helps, honestly, uh, to produce higher quality wine.
2:49
Um, but the other great thing about Creekside Cellars is we are a restaurant as well, and that gives us the opportunity to showcase all of our wines we make.
2:57
Uh, up to 15 different kinds of wines, but, um, it just helps us showcase the wines with the food. And as a result of that, we sell 99% of our wine right out of the winery, and we produce- Yeah...
3:08
about 3,000 cases a year. Um, but we're located right in downtown Evergreen, uh, right along Bear Creek.
3:14
So, uh, when the weather's warm, like today, it's pretty warm out and sunny, you can sit out on our deck and enjoy wine and food to your, uh, heart's delight. Heck yeah.
3:23
It's, uh, yeah, it's really, you guys, a beautiful space. And, um, yeah, Creekside, Bill, uh, Bill Donahue and, yeah, these, you guys are kinda, you're, you're some of the pioneers in, in the Colorado wine industry.
3:35
Yeah, yeah, Bill's been making wine for a long time. Um- 'Cause, yeah, 'cause wine-making, so, uh, it really came back, of course wine-making in Colorado went, goes back to the 1800s.
3:44
But, um, in the modern era here- Mm-hmm... probably about in the '60s and '70s, where grapes started to be planted again and- Right... and, um, I mean, and then, I mean, 90- 1996 is just a short time- Yeah...
3:56
right after that, uh, especially compared to the wine world in general. [laughs] Absolutely, yeah. We're just, we're newbies, right? Colorado's newbies, but you know, we're trying to make our way. Um,
4:06
but then g- to, just to get back to a little bit of the history, yeah, so we opened in November of 2000, and then, um, I came in around 2005.
4:16
I, uh, resigned from my job and decided I needed to do something a little bit more challenging, and I met Bill, uh, when Creekside opened back in 2000, and, um,
4:26
really, really enjoyed his wine and thought, "You know what? I need to, I need to figure out this wine thing." So I resigned from my job back in 2005 and started as a volunteer at Creekside.
4:36
After I'd worked there for about a year, Paul, I enrolled, uh, in a program through UC Davis in enology and viticulture, and kinda took it to the next level and took over wine-making between, oh, I, I would say about 2008.
4:48
Wow, yeah. That's cool. So let's see. So 2008, so wow, about 10 years now at, at Creekside. At Creekside. Yeah, so- Mm-hmm, yep... um, and you've done fantastic things in, uh, 10 years.
5:02
The wine program there is excellent. Thank you. And of course, um, you brought your, uh, 2014 Cabernet Franc. I brought the- Is that correct? I brought the 15... or the 2015? Oh. 2015, yeah. The 2015. Yeah.
5:14
But let's, uh, your, your Cabernet Franc, uh, scored a 91 in Wine Enthusiast. It did. It did. And that's fantastic. In fact, the first 91 scored in, uh, in Colorado. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
5:27
So it's been, it's been the last, um, I would say the last six months, Paul, we've been kind of on cloud nine, because we got the 91 points in Wine Enthusiast, we won Winery of the Year, um, we won the Governor's Cup. So
5:40
it's like when, you know, we've gotta get, the momentum is just- Yeah... getting better and better and better. No, that's awesome. So and then Cabernet Franc, so do you g- and this is, this comes from your own vineyard?
5:49
It does, yep. Yeah. Absolutely. So, uh, tell us about that. What's, how big's your vineyard? How much, uh- Yeah... acreage do you guys have and stuff?
5:54
Yeah, so we, we have about 10 acres out in Palisade, and on the vineyard we grow, uh, the Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Viognier, and some Merlot.
6:05
Um, so, you know, it's obviously not enough to make 3,000 cases, but, um, we feel that, um, Franc is really, you know, you can tell by the label, it's Colorado's Cabernet.
6:15
So our customers at Creekside, this is, they know that when they come in, this is what they want is the Franc. They love it. They hate it when we run out. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] Customers are like that, so. They are.
6:26
Even though we produce, you know, 14 different wines, they want the Franc. Yeah, so, uh, so Cabernet Franc, um,
6:34
for those, uh, who don't know, it's a, um, uh, it's a grape that's part of the Bordeaux family, uh, of grapes. In fact, it's the parent grape to Cabernet Sauvignon, used as a blending grape in, uh, in Bordeaux in France.
6:47
Yeah. But, uh, in the Loire Valley of France, um, that's where it's, um, bottled as- A single varietal... as a single varietal. Mm-hmm. Correct.
6:55
So, uh, it grows very well here in Colorado, as it does, uh, in other parts of the world, and, uh, we think we have some, uh, world-class, uh, Cabernet Franc here. We do. Yeah. We do.
7:05
So, uh, today we're gonna, we're gonna taste, um, a wine from the Loire Valley, which is, uh, specifically would be Chinon is the, is the area within, uh, the Loire. So we're gonna try that.
7:18
That's a classic Cabernet Franc. Then we brought one, uh, another one from Santa Barbara County, uh, over in California to compare. And then, uh, course we have, uh- We have your very own Cabernet Franc. We have, yeah.
7:31
[laughs] Brought one with my name on it. So yeah, we brought some Buona Quisti wine.
7:36
Uh, this, uh, my 2016 Cabernet Franc and, uh, that one, uh, the grapes I source, uh, for that come from Mesa Park Vineyards over in Palisade.
7:45
And then, uh, then we'll have the Creekside Cellars, uh, Cabernet Franc, so really excited. Really excited. Yeah. But, um, so flavor profile-wise, uh, what, what you can expect from Cabernet Franc, um, um,
8:01
I always go with, uh, there's always berry. It depe- well, depending where they come from, it could be, uh, some tart cherry. Uh, but there's, but there's always this green pepper, uh, or chili pepper type of profile.
8:13
I get a little, uh, olive brine sometimes. I get leather, tobacco. That's the type of things, uh, when I come across, uh, uh, Cabernet Francs and, and, uh- Mm-hmm, yeah... what do you, what do you think?
8:26
What do you taste? Well, in, in Creekside Cellars Cabernet Franc, we actually try to stay away from some of those, uh, vegetal aromas and- Yeah... and characteristics.
8:36
So you're not gonna get a lot of that bell pepper out of ours, and that's because we're really, um, particular about how we, uh, manage our canopy.
8:44
And so we kind of, um, don't have to worry about some of those vegetal flavors. But we're gonna have black cherry, blackberry, um, some cocoa, a little bit of clove in our- Nice... in our Cab Franc.
8:57
And we do, um, age it 24 months in oak, so we're gonna get some of those oaky flavors as well, versus like Chinon, um, where they kinda stay away from all new oak.
9:06
Um, Creekside kinda goes to the other extreme, but not overoaked. So looking forward to getting ahold of these and tasting them. Well, good. I am too, and your description sounded a, a lot more appetizing than mine.
9:19
Who I- who likes olive brine? I don't. [laughs] I only like the olives. So hey, so when we come back, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna crack these open. Actually we, they're already cracked open.
9:30
What am, what am I talking about? We're g- We need to start pouring them We're gonna start pouring and tasting, and, uh, Cha-Cha will be here and, um, 'cause she, you know, she knows nothing about wine.
9:39
I'm just gonna say it. No offense, Cha, but I know you know nothing about wine, and that's why we love you, 'cause you're gonna ask the, the hard questions. All right. And we'll answer them. All right.
9:49
So stick around with us. We'll be back with some Cabernet Franc right here on Mile High Sports Radio. You're listening to Denver Wine Radio. And your laughter too
New episodes, straight to your inbox.
Subscribe
