WineInk: Harvest and Song – Maisonbleuecossonay

There are few better pairings than music and wine, and the band at Carboy Winery Estate Vineyard in Palisade, Colorado, will be serving up just that in a few weeks during the first edition of Harvest Harmonies as part of the Carboy Winery Concert Series.

“There’s nothing like walking into the vineyards at this time of year, when you can smell, taste and savor the harvest season,” says Kevin Webber, one of the founders of the vibrant Grand Valley Winery and the various side projects it has spawned. “And great music makes it even better.”

On Saturday evening, October 5, in the middle of the harvest season, Mt. Garfield Estate Carboy Winery will host an evening of music featuring vocalist Daniel Rodriguez and special guest guitarist Cary Morin. Rodriguez, a founding member of Elephant Revival, will bring his contemplative, rousing psychedelic folk rock to the winery to celebrate the changing of the seasons. Also performing at Carboy Winery will be fingerstyle guitarist Cory Morin, a member of the Crow Nation who has played with Bonnie Raitt and Los Lobos during his career.

Bubbles n Blues at Carboy Winery Estate Vineyard.

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“When we bought the winery, we found that the area next to the old woodshed was the coolest part of the property,” Webber explained. “We took out the old vines, cleaned out the shed, built a stage and put in a grassy area where we could host wine lovers for concerts. We kicked it off in May with a Bubbles and Blues event featuring Omar Coleman and his Chicago Blues Band. It was raining, so everyone came to the sparkling winery, but it was a fantastic time.”

If you’re not familiar with Carboy, you should be. In less than a decade, it has become one of Colorado’s premier wineries, producing more than 30,000 cases of wine from two vineyards in Palisade and a winery in Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills appellation. Its business model has been supercharged by the addition of tasting rooms in Denver restaurants on Capitol Hill, Littleton and Breckinridge. Carboy has also built a direct-to-consumer wine club with nearly 2,500 members and ships to 38 states.

Carboy began in 2016 as a passion project when founders Craig Jones, Kevin Webber and head winemaker Tyzok Wharton joined forces to bring Colorado wine into the conversation about great wine regions.

“Our goal was to bring people interesting, innovative wines, and we took steps to bring Colorado wine to the public’s attention as one of the new directions in American winemaking,” Webber said of his journey, which has taken many paths.

In recent years, Carboy Teroldego, a wine made from an intensely dark red Italian Alpine grape variety, and Chambourcin have been recognized at the Colorado Governor’s Cup wine competition.

When I spoke with Webber earlier this month, harvest in the Grand Valley AVA in Mesa County was just beginning.

“Things are coming in pretty quickly, and it looks like things might be a little earlier than usual,” he noted. “We’ve already started picking some Albariño and Teroldego, and some Syrah.”

Typically, the wines are made at Carboy Winery in Littleton, but Carboy also established a sparkling wine facility at Mt. Garfield Estate.

“Our sparkling winery is the largest Charmat method winery in the country outside of California,” Webber said.

Outshinery, Carboy Blizzards Bounty sparkling wine.

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There, they make wines using the Charmat method, in which the wines undergo a secondary fermentation in steel tanks, preserving the wines’ freshness and fruitiness. It’s the same process used to make the sparkling Prosecco wines in Italy that have become so popular.

Just in time for ski season, Carboy is launching a new Prosecco-style sparkling wine made exclusively from Colorado grapes (100% Traminette grown on the estate) that they’re calling CO.SECCO. A Colorado-style Prosecco, if you will. The wine, made at the Charmat facility, will be released in partnership with OpenSnow, an online platform that provides live ski reports. The goal is to celebrate both the wines and the state’s outdoor ethos.

The Harvest Harmonies concert is an example of Carboy’s desire to engage with the greater Colorado wine community in general and the Palisade community in particular. The performance provides wine and music lovers the opportunity to enjoy both a passionate and exquisite evening in the vineyards of Colorado’s emerging wine region at the best time of year.

A delicacy available only in Colorado.