2017 Colorado Governor's Cup Results

Happy Colorado Day! I can't think of a better way to celebrate Colorado than with Colorado Wine!

Last month, the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board (CWIDB, and for which I work part-time) held the Governor’s Cup Colorado Wine Competition. This year was the sixth incarnation of the largest, and most prestigious, statewide commercial wine competition (actually the First Lady's Choice was awarded the first year because the Governor had not given consent to use the title). The 2017 Governor’s Cup Best of Show winner will be announced at the History Colorado Center during the public tasting of the Governor's Cup Case. Modeled after the Virginia Governor's Cup Case, the top twelve wines will be the wines that the CWIDB use for the next 12 months for its marketing and educational endeavors.

A total of 325 wines from 45 local wineries were judged by a panel of sommeliers, wine writers, consultants, and winemakers from Colorado and around the country. This is almost a doubling of entries in just the past three years. Not to take anything away from any of the judges, but the most notable judge (once again) was Warren Winiarski, the world's first "flying winemaker." Winiarski is most famous for starting Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and winning the Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976. A bottle of 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon now sits in the Smithsonian Museum for that monumental accomplishment. But before changing California wine history, Winiarski made his mark in Colorado. When Warren and I first met almost five years ago, he told me that he wanted to come back to Colorado to see what the industry is up to these days. He keeps coming back year after year. He even brought Mark Chien, Program Coordinator for the Oregon Wine Research Institute, out to Colorado on his own dime as a resource for Colorado wine growers. 

Other notable judges include: Doug Frost, Master Sommelier, Master of Wine and overall renaissance man; Andrew Stover, D.C.-based regional wine pimp and Wine Enthusiast 40 under 40 Tastemaker; Jeff Siegel, aka The Wine Curmudgeon; and Tina Caputo, Wine Storyteller and host of "Winemakers Drinking Beer." 

The Governor’s Cup Case is composed of the top 12 wines and just so happens to include a cider, mead, white, red and dessert wines: the definition of diversity. There are 12 unique varietal and blended wines. This is the first year that the Governor's Cup Case does not have multiple wines from a single winery or duplicate examples of a specific cultivar (Syrah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc have made up a bulk of the case in the past). This is the fourth straight year that Bookcliff Vineyards is represented and six of the wines in the 2017 Case have been in the Case previously. That is the model of consistency!

Does the fact that no single variety or style stood out this year mean that Colorado has no specific wine to hang its hat on? Well, that question is hard to answer when less that a quarter of all producers submitted samples and many of those that did, did not send their entire lineups. Nevertheless, the case does include wines from two wineries that have never been included in the case before! Progress one step at a time!

2017 Governor’s Cup Case:

Bookcliff Vineyards (Boulder), 2016 Riesling
Carlson Vineyards (Palisade), 2015 Tyrannosaurus Red Lemberger
Colorado Cellars (Palisade), Raspberry Wine
Colorado Cider Company (Denver), Grasshop-ah Cider
Creekside Cellars (Evergreen), 2014 Cabernet Franc
Guy Drew Vineyards (Cortez), 2015 Syrah
Meadery of the Rockies (Palisade), Strawberry Honey
The Infinite Monkey Theorem (Denver), 2013 The Bubble Universe Sparkling Albariño
Two Rivers Winery (Grand Junction), 2015 Port
Decadent Saint (Boulder), 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Whitewater Hill Vineyards (Grand Junction), 2016 Sweetheart Red
Winery at Holy Cross Abbey (Cañon City), 2015 Reserve Merlot

Governor’s Cup Wine Competition Public Tasting will be held at the History Colorado Center (1200 Broadway, Denver) starting at 6:30 p.m. on August 3. Tickets start at $45 for General Admission or $75 for the VIP ticket that will allow a tasting of previous Governor's Cup winners. You can find tickets here!

Also new this year, the CWIDB received a grant from the Colorado Tourism Office to create a documentary about the Governor's Cup. Here is a teaser for the video:



Governor's Cup—judges promo from IAN FRANK // FILMS on Vimeo.

Colorado wineries earn two prestigious Jefferson Cup awards (yet again...)

For the sixth year in a row, a Colorado wine earned a Jefferson Cup. The Jefferson Cup Invitational competition honors the best of the best among wineries from all of America’s wine regions. Each year Doug Frost, one of only four people on the planet to hold both the Master Sommelier and Master of Wine credentials, invites wines from across America to enter, whereas most other wine competitions are dominated by entries from California. Jefferson Cups were awarded to wines made from both Vitis vinifera grapes (a European species responsible for most famous wines such as Chardonnay and Cabernet) and non-vinifera varieties, which flourish in the more extreme climates in the center portion of the U.S. I am hopeful that the frontenac and vignoles (non-vinifera hybrids) vines in my backyard survive the record cold temperatures we experienced, yet again, a few weeks ago along the Front Range of Colorado! I actually had a crop of frontenac this past fall, but waited one day too long to harvest because the birds got to them before I did.

This year, seven Colorado wineries earned a total of 28 medals from the fifteenth annual competition. Bookcliff Vineyards took home their fourth Jefferson Cup for their 2013 Malbec and repeated the honor they earned the previous two years! The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey's 2012 Merlot Reserve was also a Jefferson Cup Winner for the first time. Other Colorado wineries that were invited and garnered awards in 2014 were Anemoi Wines, Boulder Creek Winery, Canyon Wind Cellars, and Grande River Vineyards. Colorado's past Jefferson Cup winning wines include Boulder Creek Winery's VIP Reserve (2010), Bookcliff Vineyards' 2009 Petite Sirah (2010), Canyon Wind Cellars' 2009 Petit Verdot (2011), Bookcliff Vineyards' 2010 Ensemble (2012), and Bookcliff Vineyards' 2011 Cabernet Franc Reserve (2013).

In total, thirty-eight prestigious Jefferson Cups were awarded. The competition had representation of the best of what every quality wine producing region in the country is offering right now, including representation from California, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington. States that won Jefferson Cups included Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota (yes, North Dakota makes wine...), Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

Drink It In (a review of the wine guide to Western Colorado)

I've been without Internet at CWP World Headquarters for the last 10 or so days, so I haven't been able to update the blog. By now, I'm sure everyone is already finished with their holiday shopping and has no need for a suggestion on another wine book to purchase for the wine lover in your life. Plus, there are lots of other book suggestions by every other wine writer out there (Eric Asimov, W. Blake Gray and Dave McIntyre fun the gamut).

But what the hell, I'm going to offer one recommendation that you will not find on any other list of wine books. I know you'll be shocked to hear that it is a book about Colorado wine. Two other books on the emerging industry have been published in the past two years, but neither of those offer the information, usefulness and aesthetics of the most recent addition. Granted, I haven't thoroughly read or reviewed either of those two, but I have skimmed through them enough to know that they don't intrigue me. Both of the other books were self-published and written by people unfamiliar with the wine industry, and it shows. They are filled with black and white text and not much more. One is nothing more than a colorless brochure; it is just a list of wineries and contact information with space for the reader to take tasting notes. The other seems to offer a bit more depth and information, but the first paged I opened to contained a factual error (claiming that Chateauneuf du Pape is known for its syrahs) and the author (who for some reason uses a pen name) argued with me about the federal labeling requirements for listing an appellation. That doesn't do a lot to convince me that the book is worth my time.