Denver’s 5280 Wine Tours

It’s no secret I’m a bit of a wine-o.  New(ish) to Colorado, but not new to the vine, I wanted to check out what Colorado has to offer in terms of grape-growing and production.  So, Boyfriend and I spent this past Saturday checking out some of the wineries and tasting rooms here on the front range, along with local wine tour group, 5280 Wine Tours.

What’s interesting about these is that they’re all totally urban – really, all five wineries we visited were right in the middle of the Denver area.  The grapes come in from the Western Slope (like Palisade), but are produced here in the city.

Because a picture’s worth a thousand words, enjoy these shots we got while we sniffed, swirled, and sniffed with our fantastic tour guides, Lisa and Sean.

Urban wine tasting, in pictures

We were told this was a bus tour. Turns out “bus” means “stretch Hummer”.

We spent the first part of the trip at Balestreri Vineyards, sampling more wines than should be allowed for the first stop on the wine tour.  Favorites included a Late Harvest  Red Zinfandel and a Cherry Port, of which we bought two bottles.

Check out the cherry mash in this photo below.  They press the seeds with the grapes to get a nutty, almond flavor into the wine, which I gotta – say is so, so good.

After Balistreri, we went to Colorado Winery Row – Denver’s Urban Wine Tasting Destination.  Basically, this is four tasting rooms, all side-by-side, in the heart of urban Denver at I-70 and Pecos, not too far from LoDo and downtown.  You know how when you get to a Midas or a car shop in a long, rectangular building with garages side-by-side next to a main office?  This is kind of what that felt like.

Four in one

We visited Garfield Estates and Cottonwood Cellars, which share a space, but due to liquor licensing, won’t allow you to bring one drink from one winery across a line onto the other side.  No worries, we kept it separate and enjoyed both the Cottonwood Cellars and Olathe Winery and then hopped the line to Garfield Estates, where I tried the most decadent chocolate port in the history of… well, chocolate ports I guess.

Old wines, new methods

Some of the coolest things about these vineyards was the different approaches they were using to doing some familiar wines.  For instance, Balistreri produces their Chardonnay like a red wine, skins on until the end – unfiltered.  You get a very interesting, not so oaky Chardonnay.  Very cool.

After my time in Traverse City last month, I was delighted to see that Balistreri was doing some cherry wines – tart Montmoncery “pie cherries,” actually, which brought me briefly back to cherry country.  And we bought two bottles of their cherry wine because it was that good.

They also still hand-cork, hand-seal, and hand-label every single bottle.  They’re not a huge operation, but at over 50,000 bottles sold each year – that’s no small feat.

Speaking of Little Feet, try the Little Feet Merlot at Balistreri.  It’s one of their signature wines and is a fan favorite as the grapes are stomped each year by kids’ little feet.  Don’t worry – everything’s cleaned and purified during fermentation, with all the other dirts and germs that land on grapes during their growth and harvest.

Front range grape goodness

The best part about all of this was the fun and interesting introduction into wines of the Front Range.  I know that other places in Colorado grow and bottle some great wines – Palisade, Ft. Collins, etc., but it’s awesome to know that right here in the Denver area, we have some really fine wine going on.

doniree

Doniree Walker is the Nomadic Foodie. She loves the exploration and community of food, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves the region's focus on local and seasonal food, daily farmers' markets and food carts at seemingly every turn. She's on twitter as @doniree and @nomadicfoodie, and blogs her adventures and life in general at doniree.com.

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Tagged as: 5280 Wine Tours, Colorado, denver, front range, stretch hummer, vineyard, wine, winery