Wine-tasting tour spans vineyards across Front Range

Wine-making throughout the Front Range is creating an important tourist destination and a special attraction for regional visitors. With the weather fairly mild all year, wine tasting becomes a pleasurable experience in every season, even winter.

The Front Range is home to seven commercial wine-related operations, six of which are tasting rooms open to the public. One Boulder winery without a tasting room offers its wine at a Saturday Farmer’s Market. In addition, the Eastern Slope now has one of the first producing vineyards in history.

Visitors wanting to taste and buy Colorado wines can tour one tasting room daily and others during scheduled hours or by appointment. Tewksbury & Co. Tewksbury & Co., a tasting room in the interior of Writer’s Square at the northeast corner of 15th and Larimer streets, is open seven days a week and is the only place in Denver where wine can be purchased on Sunday. The Colorado Department of Revenue in its limited winery legislation allows enterprises featuring a tasting room for Colorado wines to sell it on Sundays.

Dave Tewksbury offers Colorado wines from two Western Slope wineries and the Trail Ridge winery in Loveland, in addition to wine accessories. Tewksbury also displays and sells authentic wooden, cigar store Indians.

Several stools at the wine bar face the store’s extensive cigar offerings, humidor room and cigar locker. Cigar locker? Yes. If an cigar aficionado is overstocked at any point, he or she can lock their excess in individual temperature and humidity-controlled containers at Tewksbury.

The winery’s Honeywell air system, which keeps the store at the optimum temperature and humidity for cigar stock – 70 degrees with 50-55 percent humidity – is also perfect for room-temperature wines. Chilled wines are refrigerated in another part of the store.

Available wines include Carlson Vineyards Gewurztraminer, Tyrannosaurus Red and plum and cherry wines. Plum Creek wines ready to taste are two types of cabernet and chardonnay, ice wine, merlot, rose, pinot noir and sangiovese. Trail Ridge Winery wines are cabernet franc, chardonnay and Prairie Rose.

Tasting hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Call (303) 825-1880.J.A. Balistreri VineyardsAbout seven miles north of downtown Denver, in a an area historically famous for its truck farms, J. A. Balistreri Vineyards is a leftover remnant of 66th Avenue’s salad days. With about 20 acres in grape vines, the father-daughter operation is one of the only grape-growing farms in Eastern Slope history. Julie Balistreri Domenico and John Balistreri recently built the cedar-faced house for their winery and wine tasting room to complement their father’s wholesale floral business at 1946 E. 66th Ave.

In addition to merlot, cabernet sauvignon, a red zinfandel, syrah, muscat and golden semillon wines, fresh flower bouquets and gift baskets are for sale. The winery is open for parties, and tasting hours are Saturday from 1-5 p.m. Call (303) 287-5156. Old Town WineryHeading northwest about 10 miles from downtown Denver on Interstate 70 west will take visitors to the Old Town Winery in Arvada, a small operation run by owner Randy Zeleny with help from Ann Sandstom and Chris Laschinger. Zeleny is into classic wine accessories as well as being winemaker for his specialty Edge and Summer Night series.

Wine rings that stop drips, foil cutters to clip wine bottleneck covers and a wine wheel that pairs foods and wines are among the many items for sale. Colorful shirts and dresses printed with wine bottles and filled wine glasses also help wine lovers make a fashion statement.

Tasting hours are Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 3 p.m. but be sure to call first as small winery operators like this one may be off to wine festivals around the state. Call 1-888-990-wine (9463) or visit Web site www.oldtownwinery.com/. Creekside Cellars

Continuing west on Interstate 70 to Evergreen look for a funky, copper-roofed, stone building in the heart of downtown, across the street from the Little Bear Tavern. Creekside Cellars, a new winery and delicatessen serving Italian food and wines, just opened in October by owner and winemaker Bill Donahue.

Donahue’s son Tim runs the stand-up deli offering sandwiches for lunch and cheese plates in the afternoon. The winery also can be rented for parties of 25 to 35 people.

Taste the winemaker’s Lake Haus Vintage Port and Black Muscat Port – both winery specialties. Others include sauvignon blanc, merlot, two cabernets, chardonnay and pinot noirs. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, noon to 5:30 p.m. Call (303) 674-5460.Augustina’s WineryAugustina’s Winery at 4715 N. Broadway, no. B-3 in Boulder is the second-career choice of Marianne Walter, Carry Nation’s great, great niece. A former geologist, Walter changed careers several years ago after the death of her husband.

Walter started Augustina’s in 1997 with $20,000 of her own money, which she said is a very low figure for getting started, and produced 600 gallons of wine the first year. Typically, it takes about $200,000 to get a winery going. She named the winery Augustina’s after her own nickname of “Gussie,” making the winery name the more formal version.

She now produces her own “Wine Chick” brand and Harvest Gold label. Other wines from the winemaker include cabernet franc, lemberger and fruit wines.

In October the winery will be open for sales and tastings Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 28 from 3 to 7 p.m. Call (303) 545-2047 for other times or to make an appointment.BookCliff VineyardsBased on the Front Range but without a tasting room, BookCliff Vineyards grows its grapes on the Western Slope and produces and distributes its wine from Boulder. From April through October, its chardonnay, meritage, merlot and cabernet wines are available at Boulder’s Farmer’s Market, 13th Street between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue, on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Trail Ridge WineryLast, but not least, about 57 miles and slightly more than an hour’s driving time from Denver, the Trail Ridge Winery in Loveland is open 10 months out of the year for tasting. Owner Tim Merrick closes in January and February to catch up with the many chores and administrative tasks it takes to run a winery.

Trail Ridge Winery sits in an area where thousands of fruit orchards were the economy’s base. All its wines are made from 100 percent Colorado-grown grapes and fruit. Varieties include merlot, cabernet franc, lemberger, chardonnay, white riesling and gewurztraminer. Blends are Fall River Red, Never Summer White and Prairie Rose. The winery also makes apple and cherry fruit wines, and sells non-alcoholic cider for visiting families with children. Visit www.trailridgewinery.com or call (970) 635-0949.

on Facebook on LinkedIn