DD Ranch Wines

Colorado Rocky Mountain Wine Festival

Let me start by saying that wine fest was a blast. If you haven't made the trip over to Grand Junction & Palisade, you need to put it on the calendar for next year. (3rd weekend in Sept.) ColoradoWineFest.com The 2010 wine festival dates are September 17-19. Visit their web site for more information.

Last years entries were a Colorado Cabernet Franc (won a Silver Medal) and our Sauvignon Blanc. We are stayed for the announcements and festivities on Sunday. It was really fun to meet the other wine makers and "tell stories."

This year we entered all 4 wines we made last year. A Sauvigon Blanc, White Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Shiraz. All wines were made with Colorado Grapes. Please contact us if you are attending the wine festival. We'd like to see you!

Last year we added another 2 pieces of equipment. We purchased Bookcliff Wineries' grape crusher. It is all stainless and imported from Italy. They upgraded to a huge machine! We also located a pump that runs off an air compressor - it has the ability to "pause" while filling a container. Really nice to just close a valve and move to the next container.

We shared our wines with each of our cattle buyers last year at Christmas. It was fun to share our work.

We will be pouring wine for the Bonacquisti Winery again this year. Please stop in and say Hello!

DD Ranch Wines:

While we started making wine with "kits" - last fall we started from the begining. We choose to expand our education and crushed, fermented and pressed our first grapes into wine.We purchased roughly 100 lbs of 5 varieties of grapes from Paul Bonaquisti. His winery is in Denver just off I-70 & Pecos (go south about 500ft and you are there). We bought Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot (which we did as a white merlot), Shiraz, Cab Franc and Zin.

We had read countless books and magazine articles on "procedures" but until you just get in there and do it... Paul was great, he put up with our amateur questions and we worked thru the chemistry tests. He even provided commercial yeast product. Much to my surprise you can not buy the same yeast strains that commercial wineries use!

Our first crush is being tasted now! The Sauvignon Blanc and White Merlot were part of the wine tasting we did during our Annual Picnic. It was fun for all of us to taste the differences of wines made from the same grape and had a totally different flavor. I keep telling you it's like cooking; ever had the same spaghetti sauce or green chili twice? No! We all know what one is but each cook is different. Same with wine!

Ok, what is a "White Merlot?" As you know Merlot is a red grape. Red wines are fermented on the grape skins. White wines are not. So the Merlot grape was crushed, set over night and then pressed, then fermented. It is more a ruby red than a blush, which is controled by how long you leave the crushed grape on the skins. "Skin contact time" - more time more color & flavor.

We will be "oaking" our red wines and they should be ready about July or August. Of course they should age for a while, but the next crush is right around the corner! And so it will go- year to year, crush to crush.

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

Enter content here

12535 CR 23
Fort Lupton, CO 80621
(970)785-6033