ML - Aspen Peak

2012 - Issue 1 - Summer

Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak

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One of Colorado's leading wineries, Sutcliffe Vineyards handcrafts award-winning wine from grapes grown in McElmo Canyon in Cortez. L ike the weather, opinions of Colorado wine are always chang- ing. When I first moved to Aspen almost 15 years ago, the consensus was that while there were grapes grown in Colorado, the wine from which they were made generally wasn't very good. The local hobby, not a serious pursuit. But so much has changed, particularly in the past five years, that I question where Colorado wine stands today. So I set off on a road trip through Western Colorado wine country to seek answers. My first stop is Alfred Eames Cellars. The namesake owner's vineyard, Puesta del Sol, or industry then was akin to a the "Sunset Vineyard," is a small swath of land near the organic farming town of Paonia, just over McClure Pass from Aspen. In what is now the West Elks AVA, people have been growing grapes for more than 100 years. "I forgot you were coming," says Eames, 65, as he steps out of his house and into the cool morn- ing air with a smile. With a white beard, a brown wool cardigan, and a pipe, he evokes a character from classic literature. His deep voice is cadenced, never rushed. Somehow the place and the man seem to come from a more thoughtful time. No wonder his wines channel another era. As a young man in the mid-1960s, Eames lived in Spain, as a chaperone to his older sister, who was studying in Madrid. Soon she found a boy- friend (the brother of then-undiscovered singer Julio Iglesias). With nothing else to do, Eames gravitated toward vineyards, where he worked for free while learning the ins and outs of wine- making. He tasted his first glass of wine, a Tempranillo, and has been making wines in the old-world Spanish tradition ever since. We walk downstairs to his wine cave, where about a hundred French oak barrels line the floor amid dim light. When I close my eyes, the cool mix of wood, wine, and earth transport me to the cellars of Europe. Just off the cellar, inside his intimate tasting room, we sample several of Eames's outstanding reds, including the 2009 aspenpeak-magazine.com 133

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