Fremont County’s new wave in wine

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Shawn Kauffman wished to develop malbec grapes at his Bugling Elk Vineyards & Vineyard in Penrose. Badly. He planted greater than 1,400 vines in 2018 to develop grapes for wine that may rival the best Argentinian malbec. Then he added extra.

5 years later, Kauffman is “finished with malbec.”

“I’ve misplaced over 3,000 vines within the final 5 years,” he mentioned. “I wished malbec, however I’m finished with malbec. Reside and be taught. I’ve discovered extra by the losses than the successes.”

In early July, Kauffman and his spouse, Alexis, opened Bugling Elk, the latest vineyard tasting room in Penrose, enthusiastically serving up practically a dozen wines, together with his new loves: marquette and cabernet doré. His new favored wines every took a silver medal on the August Governor’s Cup competitors at Metropolitan State College.

Kauffman’s grape experimentation isn’t over, and in reality is emblematic of what’s occurring at farms, orchards and vineyards throughout the nation within the face of local weather change and water and labor shortages.

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In Fremont County, fruit orchards that within the early 1900s produced a whole lot of hundreds of bushels of apples, together with hundreds of kilos of cherries, grapes, peaches and strawberries, have dwindled. Many elements led to the change — homes changed orchards and farms, water grew to become much less predictable, bushes weren’t changed, farmers retired, labor was scarce.

These challenges stay and at the moment are coupled with extra unpredictable climate ensuing from local weather change. This summer time, Penrose acquired hit with heavy rains and hail, excessive warmth and the ever-present winds.

Nonetheless, a energetic agricultural group persists and is adapting by diversifying, experimenting and sharing what it is aware of and what has been tried. New small farms are discovering area of interest markets. A cidery and a handful of wineries are thriving. They usually’re all getting some assist. 

A Colorado School professor who’s an professional in microclimates has for eight years been bringing college students to Penrose orchards to measure things like moisture in leaves, soil situations and the way chilly air drains by way of orchards at evening. 

The Colorado State College viticulture extension workforce has been researching Colorado vineyards for 20 years and is sharing information with fruit growers by way of webinars and workshops. 

Fremont County even modified some zoning laws to make it simpler for small wineries and cideries to open.

“We wished to open new pathways for individuals to do enterprise,” Fremont County Commissioner Debbie Bell mentioned. “We need to see orchards and vineyards. We permit roadside stands the place individuals can promote their very own produce or eggs.”

A resurgence of grapes

In 1910, Fremont County reportedly had 133,000 vines that produced greater than 300,000 kilos of grapes. Many have been planted by Italian immigrants who got here to work within the mines.

These numbers shrank throughout Prohibition, however grapevines have all the time finished nicely within the Arkansas Valley farmlands. 

What number of vines are within the county now could be unclear, however individuals nonetheless are rising grapes.

Jeff Stultz, head winemaker on the Vineyard at Holy Cross Abbey, mentioned when the decision goes out for grapes for the Abbey’s annual Wild Cañon Harvest wine he will get loads of calls.

The candy blush wine is constituted of grapes that folks promote to the Abbey at 60 cents a pound, they usually should have a minimum of 20 kilos to be included, Stultz mentioned. This yr, about 50 individuals — the so-called “wild bunch” — might be included on the again label as grape contributors. Final yr’s Wild Cañon Harvest took a bronze on the Governor’s Cup — considered one of quite a few awards that went to the Abbey vineyard, which can be the recipient of worldwide awards.

Stultz mentioned he has about 20 growers with 10 vines or extra — small vineyards — that promote their grapes to the Abbey. However he is aware of there are a lot of extra individuals with only a couple vines on the again fence.

“Grapes could be very efficiently grown in Fremont County yr after yr if you happen to plant the appropriate varieties,” he mentioned. “I’ve had 20 to 22 years rising grapes myself.

“True vinifera (a European grapevine) isn’t working — they aren’t chilly hardy sufficient, bud out too early, ripen too late. In our local weather late spring frosts can have devastating results.”

Stultz, domestically often known as the grape professional, ticks off a listing of grapes that do develop nicely right here: baco noir, marechal foch, chambourcin, norton, marquette, frontenac and frontenac gris.

Charlotte Oliver, a CSU extension specialist in viticulture, agrees. 

European varieties don’t work on the Entrance Vary, however there’s loads of room for creativity, she mentioned.

She additionally favors the marquette, which was developed in Minnesota and survives temperatures to detrimental 35, for Fremont County. And Catawba (essentially the most extensively planted grape selection in North America), tosca, clarion and chambourcin.

Individuals are planting all through the county and she or he mentioned some varieties may do higher in some spots than others, based mostly on elevation, moisture, soil, and so on. 

“I’ve 1,000 norton grape vines at 7,000 ft the place I dwell — between Cañon Metropolis and Westcliffe,” Stultz mentioned. “My winery within the Moist Mountains I’ve not irrigated a single time this summer time.”

There’s room for extra growers in Fremont County, and as soon as established grapes don’t want extreme quantities of water, he mentioned. “Vines don’t like moist ft.”

Kauffman, who lately retired from tenth Particular Forces and fell in love with “wine tradition” in Europe, has visions of grapes rising all through Fremont County and want to set up an American Viticultural Space in Penrose. However that requires documentation of a sure tonnage per acre and is unlikely to occur any time quickly. There are two AVAs in Colorado — the Grand Valley AVA and the West Elks AVA.

In the meantime, he’s joined forces with Justin Jenkins, a close-by farmer and apple grower, in experimenting with beginning marquette vines in a greenhouse at Jenkins’ farm. Jenkins constructed the greenhouse through the pandemic to develop greens, however these gross sales by no means took off, he mentioned.

This summer time, the vines within the greenhouse have been trying fairly lush, regardless of the grasshopper invasion, and those outdoors have been principally dried up. That native experiment grew to become a part of a Colorado School classroom in early September.

Analysis help

CC professor Miro Kummel stood beneath the eave of a tractor shed on the Jenkins farm in Penrose and talked to about 15 college students about stomatal aperture, and the allocation of water between roots and leaves.

They took turns utilizing a small machine to measure the stomata in leaves of apple bushes and on grapevines. Basically, they have been measuring the moisture in leaves, which may assist farmers modify irrigation.

Not surprisingly, when it got here to grapevines, these within the greenhouse had extra moisture and have been much less pressured than those within the subject. 

Though comparatively easy and predictable, the measurements have been meant to point out environmental science and environmental research college students tips on how to apply their information of microclimates to actual world conditions, Kummel defined. 

He mentioned the farmers have historic perspective and are in contact with how issues change from season to season. He brings college students in early fall to take numerous measurements to create a database that over time can present traits.

“What we will do is form of suppose with them and measure the atmosphere — time of frost, irrigation points — and tips on how to enhance the power of the panorama to help agriculture,” he mentioned.

The scholars spend time listening to farmers, and arrange devices to measure wind, temperature and moisture. 

Senior Greta Cahill, 21, of Durango, referred to as it “sensible stuff” that may assist farmers perceive things like how horizontal winds flow into air pollution and the way wind impacts tree progress.

Jenkins leaned in opposition to a tractor and listened to Kummel lecture. Whereas the person pupil initiatives are small due to time constraints, he appreciates the connection he has constructed with Kummel and the info supplied.

“These guys have been phenomenal about it,” he mentioned. “There’s all the time an emphasis on getting information we will use — not simply doing a mission.

“I’ll take any free information.”

Knowledge from Kummel in addition to from the CSU extension workplace and climatology report have led Jenkins to conclude that grapes could also be a extra sustainable crop for Penrose than apples, although he nonetheless maintains his orchard. Hay is an enormous a part of his operation and he additionally buys and repairs gear to promote.

Jenkins opened Western Skies Vineyard in 2019 and had a small tasting room on the farm, which he has shut down. If he has sufficient apples he may make a batch or two of apple wine that may be bought at Bugling Elk, however he didn’t benefit from the retail aspect of the vineyard — one thing that Kauffman relishes.

“The quantity of water use is considerably much less — mature grapevines don’t use a lot water, though I battle to imagine that on this local weather,” Jenkins mentioned. 

Jenkins mentioned apples take “100,000 gallons a month to maintain bushes alive — and never produce a crop,” he mentioned of this yr’s paltry manufacturing. “This yr we simply didn’t have the blooms and I don’t know why.”

The story was the identical at most space orchards. And on the Apple Valley Cider Firm in Penrose, Kevin Williams might be making cider with apples from Washington.

“I by no means was capable of get many apples in Penrose — possibly sufficient for one batch,” he mentioned. He tries to get apples from the Western Slope however hasn’t had a lot success there both.

Nonetheless, his cidery is rising and he lately moved his tasting room into an adjoining spot within the small strip procuring heart the place he produces about 8,000 gallons of cider a yr. It’s distributed all through Colorado.

A farmer’s life

The “I don’t know why” that troubles Jenkins — and different farmers — is what retains Mannie Colon up at evening. His household began an orchard on the east aspect of Cañon Metropolis in 1890. His father took it over in 1937 and Colon took over in 1972. Now, he runs it along with his daughter Britt Colon.

They’d 35 acres of fruit bushes and have been packing and delivery fruit throughout. In the present day, he has 3 acres of apple bushes. However he isn’t giving up on apples and mentioned Britt is bugging him to get new bushes planted.

The Colons’ work about 200 acres of their farm, together with rising feed crops reminiscent of hay. Variety is what’s stored Colon Orchards going, and that began years in the past when Mannie traded some potatoes for apples, a lot to his father’s chagrin. 

That was the beginning of the seasonal farm retailer that at this time provides an array of Colorado produce and different merchandise in addition to objects grown on the Colon farm.

“Britt brings in merchandise which might be distinctive and other people like that,” he mentioned, noting that in addition they added agritourism with a pumpkin patch and corn maze. 

They introduced in kettle corn made by a vendor, however when the seller’s truck acquired stolen they began making their very own kettle corn. Now they’re enlarging the manufacturing kitchen.

The climate is all the time a think about farming, Mannie Colon mentioned, however “this yr has simply been extraordinarily tough. Any individual actually upset Mom Nature and she or he’s taking it out on us. I believe she needs us to be nicer to her.”

Different points loom, too: water rights, labor, authorities laws. And one which not many others talked about: an absence of curiosity in farming amongst youthful individuals.

“The subsequent era of farmers is a hell of a problem,” he mentioned. “You possibly can see the decline on the State Truthful — the shortage of participation. The decline in FFA (Future Farmers of America) and 4H.”

He kinds by way of a stack of magazines in his workplace — American Vegetable Grower, American Fruit Grower, Nursery Administration, Western Grower & Shipper.

“That’s the stuff I learn between 2 and 4 a.m.,” he mentioned. 

The headlines are about sustainability, local weather, water, shopper preferences. 

Mannie Colon talks about Israel rising meals with much less water, rooftop gardens in cities, trellises that defend grapes from extreme climate, drones that pinpoint the place water is required — or not wanted. So many attention-grabbing issues are occurring in farming.

Challenges? Sure, “however we’ll determine it out,” he mentioned, as he provides a peek at a brand new number of inexperienced chile that he thinks may be the subsequent good thing at Colon Orchards.

“I need to develop that chile.”