Is Colorado wine really too expensive?

Last year, a Westword blogger posted about why Colorado wine still sucks. One of her statements was that Colorado wine is too expensive. Yet in her next statement about marketing issues (with which I agree), she picked the winery with the most expensive bottles as getting it. A few weeks ago, Wine Spectator posted a blog about Long Island wines being expensive relative to other wine regions. The attack on the price of regional wines seems to a common theme whenever someone is trying to rationalize why these wines aren't as popular as mass-produced wines. The one thing I don't get is how people can compare boutique wineries with industrial wine factories. Colorado wineries are not going to be able to produce hundreds of thousands of cases of $6 wine with cute animals on the label, but compared to Napa Valley and Walla Walla, Colorado produces some reasonably priced wine. I can count on one hand the number of bottles of Colorado wine that sell for over $50. Sure, across the board the quality may not be equivalent, but neither is the product when you compare Colorado to California's Central Valley or Australia's Riverina and Riverland regions. So, is Colorado wine really too expensive?

Urban Wine Country

In the past year, the Lompoc Wine Ghetto has received its fair bit of publicity in the press (here, here, here and here). This collection of wineries and tasting rooms is receiving this attention not only because of the critical mass of producers in one location but the unique and unlikely urban location.While not in the pastoral valleys of Napa or Sonoma, this collection of world-class wineries has become a wine-tasting destination. As impressive as the Ghetto may be, it is not unique.

Colorado has a similar urban destination in north Denver. Colorado Winery Row is a collaboration of four artisan wineries that have created Denver's "urban wine tasting destination" in the chic Highlands neighborhood. Bonacquisti Wine Company, Cottonwood Cellars/The Oltahe Winery, Garfield Estates Vineyard and Winery and Verso Cellars provide a location where wine consumers can visit with the winemakers and try a wide variety of Colorado wines. Please check out my article about Colorado Winery Row for Palate Press: the online wine magazine.