DD Ranch Wines

Colorado Rocky Mountain Wine Festival

The 2011 Cab Franc took a Bronze and the 2011 Zin took a Gold medal at the 2012 Wine Festival. We once again left Palisade with grapes on board to "rush home" and crush. So we missed out on the ceremony. Our new Amateur friends from Brighton Greg and Sally were there and sent us a text about our winning GOLD! We've decided not to attend as each time we are not there we take a Gold medal (2 now.)

The grape we were "missing" has returned FINALLY mother nature allowed enough White Water Hill Syrah to be grown.We went shopping for grapes at Augustina's Winery in Boulder. We are very happy to have crushed almost 500 lbs! We also shopped at the Bonacquisti Winery for Gewurztraminer grapes and crushed 300 (?) lbs of those. My girlfriend road down with me and picked them up. The grapes from Palisade were Sauv Blanc. So a nice selection this year. A little later maybe November, Paul brought in Carmenere from California and we were able to purchase a 5 gallon carboy. We brought it home as "wine" and re oaked it. It is bottled and it is amazing! I wish Colorado would plant those!

Our little wine bottling sessions are always fun - Quality control a must, so we all have a glass ready!

Vinyard going in this Spring

We are very excited about the Vinyard going in this Spring. WE will have American Hybrid Grapes grown here! We will have "Estate Bottled Wines" in a couple years. Estate means grown, fermented & bottled on the same location. Planting will be in May - we may be looking for a Planting Party this year! Stay tuned.

Update on the Vineyard. There will be 1500 vines planted by our new "vineyard partner" Michael Marsh. He is studying Viticulture at Texas Tech. He will grow his vines as some that are ours in exchange. I will be the welder for the trellis system when it is time.

Here is you homework. Here is a list of the American Hybrid Grapes that will be grown here. Study / google them and learn what we will all be looking for in the wines. Watch for these if you are visiting wineries as you will likely not find them in a liquor / wine store. These grapes are grown in many states and are necessary here on the front range as our climate is colder than the western slope.

Michael is growing:

Noiret

La Crescent

Foch

Seyval

and a grape that is a number so far, no name

DD Ranch will have:

Corot Noir

Landot Noir

Traminette

Brianna

Baco Noir

Cheers y'all !

DD Ranch Wines:

We are amateur wine makers at this time; honing our skills (and drinking our home work.) Our friends are enjoying our tastings and getting wine as gifts! We are also in charge of wine for family holiday gatherings!

All that aside; we are getting good at the wine game. Over the years we bought a small commercial crusher, an antique Hocking Valley fruit press circa 1860's, a pump that runs off of an air compressor (it shuts off when you close the valve - one of our best buys) and a bottle filler that was on ebay. We have also aquired a series of either carboys, plastic tanks of various sizes. So we have all the "necessary" pieces of a winery.

We are small. Our philosophy is that wine should be fun. We want to do as little to the wine as necessary. We use sulfite to kill exsisting yeast, then add the yeast of "choice" based on the wine being produced; however no sulfite later. We try to force the wine to clear by letting it get really cold and make the sedimate fall naturally - we do not filter our wine. We feel it strips too much flavor. We reuse / rewash & sanitize our bottles. When we bottle, our little sessions usually end up about 15 cases. And we are very greatfull for friends that enjoy bottling!

If you live around here and would like to "help crush, press or bottle" wine, let us know. We always like help! And we have a good time.

Wine Maker Magazine:

We are Excited to Announce that we are Featured in the April May 2008 issue of Wine Maker Magazine! The story is a full page article inside the back cover. This magazine is for mostly home wine makers. It is distributed Nationwide and in Canada. Look for a copy near you!

We hope to have a link to the article soon. Please stop check back!

HERE'S THE LINK: hppt://winemakermag.com/deparatments/794.html

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12535 CR 23
Fort Lupton, CO 80621
(970)405-5784