An itinerary for a long weekend in the vineyards and tasting rooms

Photos and text by the Thirst Team

Centennial State wineries keep winning international awards and landing on prestigious and selective wine lists. Colorado is becoming the next California, but our wineries remain unpretentious and welcoming, where travelers can meet the winemakers and growers while relaxing by the vines.

September is a perfect time to tour Colorado’s burgeoning wine areas around the central Western Slope, especially with the Colorado Mountain Winefest coming up on Saturday, Sept. 20. It can be difficult to know where to start, though. Leave that to us. Here is a suggested itinerary for three days in the Grand Valley area around Palisade and the West Elks area around Hotchkiss.

Colterris Collections

The Blue Beryl Winery

Maison La Belle Vie

Talon Wines

TWP Winery and Farmhouse

DAY 1 - PALISADE

Learn about history, art, winemaking and more during a day of Palisade highlights.

Colterris Collections

Start the trip with a solid grounding in the global history of wine. Near downtown Palisade, winery owner Scott High has curated a museum-quality display of selections from his 18,000 pieces of wine memorabilia. Bottles, artifacts, pop culture items and many, many corkscrews fill the brightly lit display cases in the spacious room.

Maison La Belle Vie

The “House of the Beautiful Life” offers bistro lunches and decadent desserts on a shaded and cool patio with great views of the Book Cliffs. Try the vin de peche, made with muscat grapes and peaches using a family recipe dating to the late 1800s, or the tropically inspired wine slushie flight.

The Blue Beryl Winery

Courtney Kiel opened the Blue Beryl Winery in 2022 after earning a fine arts degree. Her oil paintings adorn the walls and wine bottles in a beautiful, custom-built tasting room looking out on Mount Garfield and an abandoned coal mine where her ancestors worked. The winery name is inspired by Colorado’s state gemstone, and Kiel brings deep veins of Colorado history to her boutique winery.

Talon Wines

Glenn Foster is an accomplished falconer, and the birds inspired the umbrella name of his award-winning wine company. In addition to traditional Talon Winery reds and whites, the company offers honey wines under the Meadery of the Rockies brand. They also offer St. Kathryn fruit wines, including a lavender wine infused with riesling, which is the best-selling wine in the tasting room.

Sauvage Spectrum

Plan a longer stop at Sauvage Spectrum, an estate winery helmed by grower Kaibab Sauvage and winemaker Patric Matysiewski. Wineries across Colorado have purchased their grapes or leaned on their expertise. Book ahead for a guided tour or ask about the wine blending experience with level 2 sommelier John Calacino.

Vines 79 Wine Barn

From Sauvage, take a 5-minute walk into the past. Colorado might represent the future of the wine industry but Vines 79 Wine Barn harkens back in time. The bottle labels, the saloon-style tasting room and every detail on this two-acre vineyard evoke the Old West, including the estate-grown Cowboy Cab Reserve and Silver Star Syrah.

TWP Winery and Farmhouse

Finally head west on Highway 6 and make a sharp right turn to reach this hidden gem. Book a night at the “Plaas Huis,” a spacious and luxurious South African-inspired guest house. Be sure to arrive early enough to enjoy the lake, pickleball court, hot tub, peacocks and more. In the morning, lounge until brunchtime for a wine tasting and charcuterie board that includes house-made truffles and cured meats (both lodging and tasting should be reserved well in advance).

Bookcliff Vineyards

Restoration Vineyards

Hermosa Vineyards

Mafia Princess Wine

Shiras Winery

DAY 2 - PALISADE AND GRAND JUNCTION

After brunch, tour through the foothills above Palisade all the way into Grand Junction for a full day of wine and sightseeing.

Bookcliff Vineyards

Start at Bookcliff Vineyards, which opens at noon daily from April through November. Bookcliff has been a landmark overlooking Palisade since 1996, with 37 acres of vines planted with 14 varieties. Their bestselling wines include the budget-friendly and delicious Tectonic white and red blends. They also produce the only Graciano, a Spanish red wine, in the Grand Valley.

Centennial Cellars and Talbott’s Cider Company

No trip to Palisade is complete without a visit with the Talbotts. Six generations have lived and farmed on the huge family spread, growing a large percentage of our beloved Palisade peaches. They now also operate Centennial Cellars and Talbott’s Cider Company. The cider lineup is always growing and evolving. One of their latest creations is a prickly pear cider, a collaboration with Baja Brewing.

Restoration Vineyards

Gary Brauns is a former Mercedes mechanic and parts importer whose car restoration business partly inspired the name of the seven-acre spot that has been named Colorado Winery of the Year. Gary and his wife Linda run the winery, which has a lush and welcoming outdoor space looking out on the vines. They said the name also refers to their restoration of a dead vineyard and the business venture “restoring our souls.”

Colorado Cellars

Padte and Rick Turley opened Colorado Cellars in 1978, and it operates under the state’s oldest continuously used winery license. It is also the only Colorado winery legally allowed to use the term champagne for its signature sparkling wine. Their champagne brand predates trademark laws protecting French champagne. Stop in to taste wine and locally made truffles, as well as shop in the artisan market.

Carlson Vineyards

In the 1980s, Parker and Mary Carlson opened their winery in a 1930s fruit packing shed. Carlson Vineyards has since earned some unique claims to fame. Carlson’s Tyrannosaurus Red was served in Chicago at the unveiling of the Field Museum’s
T. rex skeleton. And the Laughing Cat trio has long been a staple of local bottle shops.

Hermosa Vineyards

Visit Kenn Dunn in his cozy and rustic tasting room at Hermosa Vineyards. He will provide an impromptu crash course in Colorado agriculture, microclimates, grapes and more. His acclaimed wine is hard to find outside of his tasting room, and he sells out of his cabernet franc and merlot batches quickly every year.

Mafia Princess Wines

Somehow, Hillary Eales finds time to make and sell wine while also wrangling sheep, chickens, dogs, kids and a lion-tailed cat at her business outside Grand Junction. Mafia Princess, named for her colorful family history, recently launched a line of vermouth wine infused with spices and botanicals.

Shiras Winery

After all that wine, it might be snack time, so cruise into downtown Grand Junction to visit the Zesty Moose, an artisanal food marketplace, and Shiras Winery, also named for a moose (Colorado’s dominant subspecies is the Shiras moose). The scents of olive oils, herbs, coffee, spice blends and more mix with the expected wine aromas in this eclectic shop.

Grande River Vineyards

To end the day, sample wine at Grande River Vineyards, have dinner at locally focused fine dining restaurant Caroline’s and tuck in for the night at the Wine Country Inn. All three are on the same property conveniently located just off the interstate. The winery also hosts a monthly “live in the grapevines” concert series with top Colorado talent.

Chill Switch Wines

Fallen Mountain Wines

The Storm Cellar

Qutori Wine

LaNoue DuBois Winery

DAY 3 - Hotchkiss and beyond

After a hearty (and free) breakfast at the Wine Country Inn, take the stunning Grand Mesa scenic byway and make the journey down into the up-and-coming West Elks American Viticulture Area (AVA).

Chill Switch Wines

On the way down off the mesa is the town of Cedaredge and its boutique winery, Chill Switch. Though the wines are widely available on the Front Range, the tasting room is only open by appointment. Owner and winemaker Dave Aschwanden is a Colorado native, but he learned techniques and recipes from his Swiss winemaking ancestors.

Fallen Mountain Wines

You maybe haven’t heard much about Fallen Mountain Wines, but you almost certainly will. The winery is still in its infancy, but is open by appointment. A California winemaking family with an incredible backstory is busy assembling an expert team, establishing vineyards and orchards, raising animals and planning a venture that could further cement Colorado’s growing reputation for great wine.

The Storm Cellar

Take some extra time to cruise the switchbacks up to The Storm Cellar Winery and Vineyard, another Colorado Winery of the Year winner. Owners Jayme Henderson and Steve Steese are former Denver sommeliers who translated a passion for tasting and pouring wine into winemaking, their labor of love. Try to plan the stop around gourmet, seasonal Forage Friday dinners.

Qutori Wines

Julie Bennett owns and manages a boutique winery outside Paonia. Her son Kyle is the winemaker, who won best in show at the Colorado Governor’s Cup competition when the winery was just two years old. The tasting room and cafe are in a former gas station amid their 35 acres of vineyards. The property also includes a cafe and two tiny home vacation rentals, so visitors can spend the night.

That isn’t even the end of a complete wine journey. If you really want to explore Colorado’s wine regions, check out the budding industry in the Uncompahgre Valley, including Berkeley Estate Cellars in Olathe and LaNoue DuBois Winery in Montrose, which offers a wine tasting and massage package.

The Four Corners also is home to several wineries, including the new DuWest Wines in Cortez and Fox Fire Farms way down in Ignacio.

Further east, a growing cluster of wineries is competing with the famous apples in the Cañon City area. Of course, plenty of Front Range wineries also dot the landscape from south of Colorado Springs to north of Fort Collins.