Linda and Don Gruidel’s 1-acre Longmont vineyard grows Melody grapes, among other varieties. Photo by Erik Paulsrud.
Don Cage examines his vine crop while enjoying a glass of wine from a previous year’s harvest. Photo by Erik Paulsrud.
Don Cage inspects the grapevines prior to harvesting his Longmont vineyard. For red grapes, the process from vine to drinkable wine takes three to four years. Cage and his wife, Peggy, are on the lookout for “stompers” who can help them crush their harvest the old-fashioned way—with their feet. Photo by Erik Paulsrud.
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Home&Garden
feature article fall 07
From Vine to Wine
Amateur vintners produce pretty decent wine
for just a couple bucks a bottle—
and have family fun in the process.
by Charmaine Ortega Getz
Angular, beefy and aromatic may describe your sister’s ex-boyfriend, but for amateur winemakers it characterizes a tart red wine with a solid, spicy flavor, often produced in their own vineyards. While most people are content to simply sip wine with dinner, a handful of local aficionados are exploring wine’s tongue-tantalizing world by diving bare feet first into backyard winemaking.
Don and Linda Gruidel began growing grapes five years ago, when watering restrictions in their Longmont neighborhood limited their lawn size and left them with a bare patch on their large lot. The Gruidels were smitten when their son, Dan, showed them a photograph of a glorious California vineyard. They did a little research and decided it wasn’t a bad idea.
“I thought the grapevines would be pretty,” Linda says. “We’d feed the birds. We’d feed the squirrels.” But feeding wildlife wasn’t the only benefit the Gruidels looked forward to. They wanted to learn the art of winemaking. After speaking with a nursery in upstate New York, Don bought 150 bare-root plants, 40 posts to support the vines and an aboveground irrigation system. The supplies cost him about $900.
Buying grapevines to grow on the Front Range isn’t as easy as choosing red or white, Merlot or Chardonnay. The familiar grape varieties commonly grown in Europe and Napa Valley can’t handle frigid Rocky Mountain winters. Instead, Front Range growers choose from a cluster of cold-hardy hybrids developed at universities in Minnesota and New York.
Fortunately, Colorado’s warm days and cool nights create a nice balance of sugars and acids in these hybrid grapes, and the dry air minimizes mildew damage.
With advice from the New York nursery, Don chose three white grapes: Melody, Cayuga and Vignoles, and two red grapes: Chancellor and DeChaunac. Then he and his sons planted nearly an acre of vines. “It didn’t take long, really. Putting in the plants took about a day,” Don says. “The posts and the drip-
irrigation system was where the real work came in.” He gives each plant about 6 gallons of water a week during the dry season until August, when he stops irrigating in order to “stress” the grapes to intensify their flavors and aromas.
The Gruidels have learned that winemaking in this region has its share of
setbacks—hard frosts, drying winds, shredding hail, raiding raccoons—and plain hard work. “I keep it fairly organic,” Don says. “I weed by hand and use a chemical spray once in a while to get rid of bugs. I prune to encourage bigger grapes and spray a little sulfur once in a while to prevent mildew.” But that work pays off each fall when family and friends gather to harvest 1,200 pounds of grapes, which the Gruidels press with a hand-crank crusher. “And I know they haven’t got a bunch of chemicals, because I hardly put any in,” Don says.
Family tales inspired Jim and Mary Ehrets to join forces with the Gruidels and make their own wine. “My in-laws live in an Italian-American community in central New York State,” Jim says. “My wife grew up watching her dad making wine at home. We decided to move the family operation to our house three years ago.”
This year, the Ehretses ordered 1,440 pounds of California grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Old Vine Zinfandel—the latter a rare treat for home vintners. The Ehretses and the Gruidels work together to press the imported grapes, which produce about 600 bottles of wine at a cost of $2.50 to $2.75 apiece, that they share between the families. From harvest to bottle, the process takes about seven months for white wine and 10 to 11 months for reds. The whites are ready to drink in two to three years; the reds in four to five. “And it’s good wine,” Jim says.
Grape Expectations
These families aren’t alone in their enthusiasm for winemaking. “I think wine has become more popular in society in general, so I think more people are wanting to make wines,” says Brian Carter, co-owner of Stomp Them Grapes!, a wine- and beer-making supply store in Denver. When the shop opened four years ago, it sold 2,000 pounds of wine grapes. Last year, it sold 40,000 pounds.
Don and Peggy Cage of Longmont buy grapes from a Western Slope vineyard and also grow their own. With the help of their two college-age kids and a clean-footed crew, the Cages crush grapes the old-fashioned way—by stompin’ ’em. However, the couple “ran out of helpers last year” and is seeking new recruits. “We need people with good feet,” Don says. Stompers stand singly and in pairs with their feet in large bins that hold about 200 pounds of grapes each. It takes roughly 20 minutes of steady stomping until you’re “hunting around with your toes for grapes that haven’t popped yet,” Don says. They’ve tried using crushers, but “for the size of what we do, it’s not as good a job as stomping…besides, stompin’ ’em is just more fun.”
The first time they attempted to make wine five years ago, the Cages bought grapes from California that arrived moldy and fermented. “That was a mistake,” Don says. “That was before we met the Gruidels, before we knew a lot of things.” Today their quarter-acre plot is planted with 10 varieties of vines. The couple even belongs to a local group that shares their interest in viticulture. “We’re the FROGGs,” Don says. “The Front Range Organization of Grape Growers.”
And while none of the families plan to turn pro, their wine labels are just as fetching as any commercial producer, with pretty pictures of their vineyards named after their streets and neighborhoods: Vermillion Vineyards, The Vineyard of Legend Ridge and Legend Ridge Cellars. Whether it’s for the joy of drinking handcrafted vino, keeping a family tradition alive, or as Don says, “the satisfaction of just tending the vines,” these FROGGs say the pleasure lies as much in the labors of the fruit, as in the fruits of their labor. Charmaine Ortega Getz is a freelance journalist who has been writing about food, beverages and the Boulder area for the past 10 years.
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