Winners of CO Wine Competition Announced
May 01
The annual Colorado Wine Competition organized and run by the Colorado Wine Board took place April 30th.
Best Wine and Best of Category Winners are as follows:
- Best wine (sole double gold): Abbey at Holy Cross cabernet franc 2010, Canyon City
- Best red: Garfield syrah Grand Valley 2009
- Best white: Plum Creek Palisade white NV
- Best rose: Boulder Creek dry rose 2010
- Best fruit wine: Colorado Cellars peach
I judged at the competition following the annual Drink Local Wine conference, hosted by the Colorado Wine board in Denver, and a day of visiting wineries on Colorado’s Front Range between Boulder and Denver.
Reviewing My 2012 Visit to Colorado and the Drink Local Wine Conference
Since I first visited Colorado’s wine industry in 2006, I’ve been a firm believer in the potential of world-class wine quality here. I was pleased to taste a wide range of excellent wines in the Twitter Taste-Off, and some in the competition and on the tour. I was also pleased to see the improvement of quality in some classes, like chardonnay and viognier, and the advent of some exciting new wineries like Ruby Trust.
Colorado has some unique industry dynamics that give its wine industry a bright future in some ways: high altitude vineyards with high ultra violet light, virtually no disease pressure, grape chemistry that yields wines with bright fruit flavors and firm acids, and an impressive and even astonishing spirit of experimentation, innovation and rugged individualism which results in one of the most diverse range of local products in the country.
At the same time, there are challenges. Two thirds of the winegrapes are located in the Grand ValleyAVA in the Western Slope region. While vinifera viticulture is possible here, a massive winter event in 2009 brought freezing temperatures which devasted the vineyards and demonstrated that cold air drainage is a critical part of sustainable site selection in the state. For the last two years Colorado has been losing winegrape acreage, and some growers are leaving the business or switching to peach trees in the best sites.
I lead a seminar at the Drink Local Wine conference, hosted last Saturday at Metro State University in Denver, titled “Colorado Terroir and the Challenges of High Altitude Viticulture”, with state viticulturist Host Caspari, state enologist Stephen Menke, and commercial grower Bruce Talbott as speakers. All three agreed that with the risk of freezes or winter kill, very limited room for growth of vinifera vineyards in the Grand Valley, and marginal prospects for vinifera sustainability elsewhere, the Colorado wine industry will have to consider more cold-hardy varieties including hybrids, in other parts of the state, for it to continue and expand.
The Twitter Taste-Off brought a hundred conference attendees the chance to taste and tweet on dozens of Colorado wines, ranging from vinifera varietals to hybrid varietals to meritage-style blends to meads. As announced in a previous post, the winners of the Best Red and White awards were Guy Drew Vineyards Pinot Gris (grown in the Cortez area of Montezuma Co. in Four Corners) and “The Smuggler”, a 90% cabernet franc-dominated blend from the new and very promising Ruby Trust winery.
My favorite wines from the twitter taste-off were: for whites,
- Guy Drew unoaked chardonnay 2011, Montezuma Co. Bright and zesty, this had the lemony intensity of a true Chablis, instead of the boring ersatz pinot grigio that most unoaked chardonnay turns out to be. On the palate the wine was just as bright and lively lemony as on the nose, with long firm acid; a perfect food wine, and a category changer for this overworked variety.
- Infinite Monkey Theorum Riesling 2011, Grand Valley It takes a lot to impress this riesling maven, but this wine did. A Mosel/Saar dry style wine, it’s still very young and not very evolved but the mouth feel is an amazing combination of dense, lush white peach fruit and lively, tart green apple acidity. Complex and perfectly balanced, it needs a few more months to come together but will reward patient cellaring in the near, and long term (Stelvin cap finished).
- Snowy Peaks Elevee Blanc 2010 (60% viognier, 40% roussanne) Few vintners dare to make a white Rhone blend due to their obscurity in the U.S. (just look how few white meritage wines are made), but this is a skillful blend that does homage to the grapes. The nose is subtle with prickly-pear aromas tinged with cinnamon. Like flavors on the palate are rounded out by a rich unctous texture that ends with fresh acidity. An excellent food wine especially with Southwest cuisine.
My favorite red wines from the twitter taste-off were
- Ruby Trust “Smuggler” 2009: This cabernet franc-dominated blend was incredibly smooth, with aromas of red and black fruits with baking spices and a cherry/chocolate finish. With an alcohol level of 14.5%, it’s easy to understand why this smooth and elegant yet spicy and intriguing wine won out over more tannic competitors. It also shows the potential for cabernet franc as a proud leading grape in a state where some are calling it “Colorado’s cabernet”.
- Snowy Peaks Winery Petite Sirah 2009: As with another fine example from Bookcliff winery, Snowy Peaks’ petite sirah shows how elegant this grape can be in the higher altitude terroir of Colorado. This wine is violet tinged, with a rich and spicy mix of briar fruits on the nose dominated by blueberry, and hints of oak. On the palate, the wine is rich, with deeply concentrated fruit but smooth tannins. This is a fruitier less tannic style than seen in California but also has better balanced acidity. STylish.
- Ruby Trust “Gunslinger” 2009: This spicy bold and rich blend is syrah-dominated, and is more punchy than the Smuggler, but I still enjoyed it. On the nose, I was intrigued by dusty cocoa powder with cola and nutmeg hints. On the palate, the wine was huge, spicy and peppery, with black cherry fruit and a long finish. This wine is big but balanced and has years of life ahead.
