Colorado wine producers commanding more respect

LOVELAND – Pat McGibney is one of the pioneers in Colorado’s nascent Front Range-based wine industry.

McGibney and his wife, Geri, are Loveland area residents who have devoted themselves to growing wine grapes and establishing the Valley of the Wind Winery near Loveland. They also operate a popular tasting room next to the babbling Big Thompson River in downtown Estes Park.

The McGibneys, who started growing wine grapes six years ago, are among about a dozen or so who have built wineries along the Front Range in the last decade or so, from Snowy Peaks Winery in Estes Park to The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City.

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And while Colorado’s wine industry is considered to be centered on the Western Slope, these wine-makers are challenging the conventional wisdom that fine wine grapes can only be grown on the warmer west side of the Continental Divide.

“We can grow grapes over here, although we probably have to grow hybrids,” McGibney said.

That’s because the winters get a lot colder along the Front Range, and that can kill off grapevines during “the cold snaps,” as he calls them. But McGibney said hybrids are being grown now that can stand temperatures down to 33 degrees below zero.

In McGibney’s view, Colorado is a great place to grow and sell wine but the state must focus more on the selling.

“People have to put more emphasis on the retail side of it,” he says. “California really has it nailed – it’s just marketing, marketing, marketing. We have to take it to the next level.”

McGibney said Colorado’s wines have matured and reached award-winning heights over the last three decades or so.

“Last weekend a couple from California came in and left with eight cases,” he said. “That’s pretty high praise.”

But more must be done to attract the interest of local residents to Front Range wineries and tasting rooms, he said.

“Over 50 percent of our repeat customers are from the Front Range,” he said. “We really need to start marketing to our people here.”

McGibney, who sells mostly wines from Western Slope vineyards, says Front Range wineries and West Slope growers have a good partnership going. “I always say they’ve got the grapes and we’ve got the people.”

$42M to state economy

Last year, Colorado State University’s Cooperative Extension studied the impact of the wine industry on the state’s economy and found that it contributed about $42 million in 2005.

That included about $21 million in tourism dollars spent at wine-tasting rooms and wine festivals held around the state, including Colorado’s biggest, the Colorado Mountain Winefest in Palisade. The annual festival, which draws about 5,000 or more, is in its 16th year and will be held on Sept. 13-16.

Doug Caskey, executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, said the state’s wine industry is “absolutely” on the upswing 17 years after the state legislature decided to fund its development through a tax on wine sold in Colorado.

The tax raised about $560,000 last year and goes to fund wine research and marketing, he said. “It was really a forward-looking action by the legislature to create it,” Caskey said. “It’s significant that one-third of that has been going to research all that time, which has really helped our growers.”

In 1990, when the wine tax was passed, Colorado had only five wineries. That’s increased to about 65 now, Caskey said. “There’s new ones popping up all the time, and by no means are they all on the Western Slope.”

McGibney said the state’s wine industry is moving ahead quickly, with wine production and sales doubling over the last five years. “It’s still new but we’ve come a long way – you should see all the awards we win,” he said. “For the amount of wine we produce, we win more awards than any other state.”

And while wine is produced in every state with three – New York, Washington and especially California – dominating the market, Colorado (now ranked 22nd) is showing great potential to become a respected wine-growing region.

“California probably loses more wine to evaporation every day than we make in a year, but we’re definitely on the map,” Causkey said. “It’s a tough business and virtually everybody in it still has their day job, but they’re in it because they love it and when you look at our awards list, it’s very impressive.”

Steve Porter covers agribusiness for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at (970) 221-5400, ext. 225, or by e-mail at sporter@ncbr.com.