The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey has storied history

By Eric Peterson

Most wineries don’t have an exorcism or an accountant in their history. The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in Cañon City has both.

As the story goes, a monk from the historic Holy Cross Abbey performed an exorcism on an allegedly haunted winery in Palisade in 2000.

That sparked an idea: Why not make wine at the monastery? The monks, who numbered about 20 at the time, recruited a winemaker and opened the Winery at Holy Cross Abbey in 2002.

Their numbers further dwindled, and the church ultimately moved them to other facilities as it looked for a buyer for the winery. They found Larry Oddo.

An accountant by trade, Oddo bought the winery in 2005. “I was looking for something different than what I was doing,” he said. “I’m a foodie, I love beverages. . . . It just aligned pretty well.”

At the time, Oddo was commuting from New Jersey to New York and back again for more than three hours a day in all. “My commute went to 15, 20 minutes,” he laughed.

The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey now uses 18 varietals of grapes in its portfolio, including award-winning merlots and rieslings. Much of the fruit is sourced from the Western Slope of Colorado.

“We try to have something for everyone,” Oddo said. “We make wines I like and we make wines that everyday people like.”

Of course everyone has their favorites. “We’re known for our merlots and rieslings,” he said. We rely on those as our heavy hitters, but we also do very well with our other varietals in competitions and wine magazines.”

The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey also makes wine out of grapes donated by locals who harvest their backyard vines in the late summer and fall. “We try to get that released the week before Thanksgiving as a celebration of the harvest and Thanksgiving,” said Oddo.

Although the monks have since moved on, the abbey grounds remain an idyllic location to sip wine. Developers have been eying construction of a mixed-use development alongside the abbey on the property for years, but progress has been slow-going.

The winery hosts its annual Harvest Festival event on Sept. 23-24, featuring live music, wine tastings, food vendors and local artisans.

“That is an event that has grown and grown and grown each year,” Oddo said, noting that it’s expanded from a few dozen attendees in 2002 to about 5,000 in recent years. “It’s just a real celebration of the harvest. People travel from near and far to come to it. That’s our marquee event.”

“It’s free to come in, free to set up a chair. We sell wine by the glass, by the bottle, and commemorative glasses and tasting tickets.”

On Sept. 22, the winery will also present a 10-course winemaker’s dinner at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. Reservations are required; the price was $120 in 2022.

Eric Peterson is a freelance writer based in Denver. His website is rambleguides.com.

This article is in the September-October issue of our print magazine. Click here to read the full magazine online.