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Winery
and Vineyards Crooked Creek Wines We found this beautiful property southwest of Cortez after searching for several years while maintaining our corporate careers in Denver. Beginning in 1998, we transformed a homestead hay farm in McElmo Canyon that we purchased in October 1997 into vineyards and built our straw bale winery and home. Our mission here is to make distinctive premium wines from our vineyards and offer a memorable experience for visitors to our winery in this enchanting corner of Colorado. McElmo Canyon is the southwest arm of Montezuma Valley on the Colorado Plateau west of the Rocky Mountains and was an ancient Anasazi trade route and historical fruit-growing region in Colorado. McElmo Creek runs through this narrow 21-mile long valley from Montezuma Valley on the east to the San Juan River in Utah on the west. The Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and legendary volcanic Sleeping Ute Mountain rises to nearly 10,000’ south of our farm, Canyon of the Ancients National Monument begins below the rimrock on the north and Mesa Verde provides spectacular vistas to the east. We sited the vineyards and buildings carefully on our 155-acre farm to preserve the high desert piñ¯® and juniper landscape and riparian wildlife areas along McElmo Creek and avoid numerous Anasazi ruins. Conscientious land stewardship, thoughtful growing practices and thrifty use of natural resources allow us to maintain the continuity of agricultural endeavor in this fragile place. We completed our 2,500 square foot pueblo-style straw bale winery in early 1999, which had space for tanks, barrel room, lab and all our crush activities. In 1999, we made wine for our own use from Cabernet Franc grapes purchased from Palisade growers. The winery was licensed in 2000 and, until our own vines matured, purchased grapes for our 2000 and 2001 Crooked Creek vintages. Beginning in 2002, our Crooked Creek wines have been made almost exclusively from our McElmo Canyon vineyards. We have now outgrown this facility and have added a 1,400 square foot covered crush pad and tank storage space behind the winery, and a 3,500 square foot climate-controlled barrel storage building. We are encouraged by increasing proficiency and expertise in the cellar on the quality of our wines with each vintage. |