It was crush time at Sutcliffe Vineyards last week in the heart of McElmo Canyon.
A small crew at the vineyard worked diligently last week to turn the canyon’s grape harvest into something so much more, something that people line up to pay between $20 and $40 a bottle for – wine.
“This is where the wine ferments in the barrel,” said Rebecca Busic, business manager at Sutcliffe Vineyards.
In another part of the winery, red grapes fermented with their skins on, inside large, plastic containers, picked two weeks ago.
The majority of the grapes (60 percent) used in Sutcliffe wines are from McElmo Canyon, the remaining 40 percent come from other areas in Colorado and Utah.
Jesus Castillo keeps track of every barrel, every container, every grape. Fermentation time is different and done in a different ways for each type of wine.
“Some wines ferment in oak, some ferment in steel some ferment in both,” Busic said.
Wine is then bottled by hand at Sutcliffe and some of the wines are put in kegs, something Busic said is gaining popularity at restaurants.
“There is no glass you have to deal with and the kegs keep the wine fresh,” Busic said.
Once bottled, the wine is kept in a cave down the road from the winery. A cave deep inside the sandstone ancient sandstone that makes McElmo Canyon so picturesque.
“It basically stays the same temperature year round,” Busic said.
So far, winemakers are heralding this year’s harvest.
A mild spring for winemakers in the canyon meant the 2014 harvest was a good one.
“It was a good year, hot and dry, no mildew, no pests, we didn’t have to spray anything,” said winemaker and winery owner Guy Drew.
Sutcliffe winemaker Joe Buckle said wind damaged the grapes in some crops. Winds came during the flowering,making it difficult for the vines to produce fruit. The grapes that survived, however, have more concentrated flavors because the plant had fewer berries to feed. Thus, Buckle expects the syrah and the petit verdot, to be 2014’s blockbusters.
But, for those willing to get a taste, Sutcliffe won’t release it until late 2016 or early 2017.
“Red wines need a couple of years to mature in the bottle,” Busic said.
It takes a number of years to reap the benefits of a growing season.
Busic said the first vine was planted by John Sutcliffe in the early 1990s because he thought they would look nice.
The first bottle of wine was a 99 merlot.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The company bottles about 3,500 cases a year now, and one of the wines the 2011 cabernet franc, earned 90 points in Wine Enthusiast.
“Even to be on the list is a big deal,” Busic said. “A 90 and above is pretty exceptional.”
The Durango Herald contributed to this report.
