July 31, 2026 • 16 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Carboy Winery. One of the reasons I like talking to
you guys is because I think you and correct me
if I'm wrong. I feel like you were the first
Colorado winery. You sort of figured it out. You figured
out how to make great wine in this climate with
grapes that grow here, and you created a tasting experience,
a tasting room experience complete with a meat aquarium where
(00:20):
you make like dried meat in there. So you're, in
a way to me, you represent kind of the og
of the Colorado wine scene that is now massive, and
there's so many great wineries in Colorado, and when I
moved here in twenty thirteen, I could not say.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That, Yeah. I mean, I think Colorado wine is having
a moment.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't I don't want to give ourselves too much
of a bat on the back thinking that we're the ogs,
but of this kind of new renaissance of Colorado wine
or new pioneers. You know, we just had a goal
that when we started that we wanted to, you know,
take this industry and prove that we could put our
wines on a world stage. And we just wanted to
have fun while we were doing it. And it's kind
(01:00):
of taken an organic route where it has where we've
grown as big as we've been.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, I might come to the Chasing Room because the
one in Littleton, right next to Breconridge Rwy. Is just spectacular,
And I think you demonstrated that you can make the
entire wine thing an experience in Colorado the same way
it's been in Napa for a long time. I mean,
you go to California and there are tons of venues
like the ones that you guys have, but we didn't really.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Have that here.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So now you're expanding even more. Tell me about the
new Chasing Room in Colorado Springs.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, so we just opened Colorado Springs as our fifth
tasting room location for Carboy, and we opened it alongside
our sister restaurant, Angelo's Taverna, which is a copycat of
the fifty year old staple that we took over in
twenty thirteen, and Capitol Hill, and you know, we just
wanted to keep spreading the gospel of what we're doing
where we're merging you know, great food and experience with
(01:52):
wine and really just getting Colorado wine. It's it's due,
you know, So that's we're excited to be down there.
Great community, and we've been looking forward to being down
there for a couple of years now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So well, and I said earlier that you can overlook
Garden of Gods. That's not it, but you can see
Pipe's Peak. So where I mean, what is the view.
You got a patio, you got garage doors, people can
get that indoor outdoor experience. What are people going to
see when they're sitting in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The tasting room.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So it's a double decker concept right off of I
twenty five and Woodman. So it's the old an old
Chicago that was basically Okay that we took over and
we put the Angelo's to ver in a restaurant on
the on the base level and put the tasting room
up up above on the rooftop. So we've got this
big garage door that opens up that looks right at
Pike's Peak. It's it's a beautiful tasting room. You know,
(02:38):
every time we open up a new taste room like,
oh this is my favorite taste room, but this one,
this one really does have that really nice tasting room feel.
It's got some of the components of you know, aesthetics
from the other taste rooms that we have around the state.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But it's a it's a great spot.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So let's talk a little bit about some of the
stuff that's happening with your wine and you're just you
guys got a new certification and for the way that
you're making wine. And I know that in wine making
that is becoming a bigger deal. People want to know
what's in their wine bottle, right, they want to know
that everything, how everything was made, how is that, what
is that process? Like, what did you just achieve?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, well, we just achieved was a silver metal recognition
from Colorado Green Business Network, and it has more to
do with just the incremental steps that we're committing to
in our industry because making wine, making spirits, you know,
it's not the cleanest product.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know, you use a lot of wine. There's a
lot of resources.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
You know, forty percent of the of the product comes
in the form of packaging. And that's something that we've
excelled in since day one, where you know, about half
of the twenty eight thousand cases equivalent that we make
every year goes into stainless recyclable format, you know, for
it's stainless steel kegs, and so that's something that it's
always been you know, something we've done.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But every year we trying to level up.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know, we're putting solar out in our vineyard in
Palisade where you know, we put a gray water system
in when we open up that location as well, And
so every year we're just looking at, hey, what more
can we do to take more incremental steps and being
making a more sustainable product and being more sustainable business.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Are you using graywater on the vines?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, because in Florida people don't know this. It's been
in Florida where it rains every day and we don't
have the water problems we have here. They take the
gray water, which has been treated a little bit. It's
not toxic, it doesn't have poop in it's it's been
treated the first round. It's just not appropriate for drinking.
And that's what you use for irrigation on your lawn.
So to hear that, that's one of the things when
I moved out here, I was like, wait, what we
(04:33):
don't do that? Seems like it would make even more
sense out here because you're not wasting water that would
otherwise be good for drinking just with irrigation. Does that
make a difference, Does any of this make a difference
in the quality of the wine that you guys are producing.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I don't think the water necessarily does. I mean to
understand grape growing. You know, there's grapes. They only want
a certain amount of water anyway, So getting a ton
of rain isn't great, especially this time of year as
the grapes are starting to get ready for harvest. So
it's not something where the type of water you're using
is going to influence it as much as the soil
(05:08):
where the grape vines are planted.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So when you talk about the rain that we're having
now and the big drought, how is the drought? How
is this?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
How are your grapes doing. The grapes are actually doing
pretty fantastic. I was more concerned about the fires, you know,
especially the ones in Utahs that were coming there. But
we get you know, we we got lucky that when
the smoke came through the valley, it did so at
a time when the grapes are at a point where
they're not as susceptible to getting things like smoke taint
(05:36):
earlier on in your It is a thing. Yeah, yes,
right now, we've got a lot of grapes that are
starting what's called vasion, where the grapes that are all
start off green they start to turn you know, their
their respective colors, and so the grape skins they start to.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Get a little thinner.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
This is the point in time where if we had
wildfires and a lot of smoke in the valley where
we would be really concerned. You probably be turning on
fan if you're a vineyard owner that has fans to
try to keep that smoke off of them.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But that would be my biggest concern out there. You know,
we're fortunate.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Enough that we haven't been as impacted by the drought
as much as you maybe here on the front range.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I'm actually fascinated by the smoke tant So we're
going to ask one more follow up. So could you
not make a wine? What does it do to the
wine or can you even use it?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
At that point? Oh yeah, you could definitely use that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I mean, smoke is no smoke tints is nothing new
to wine makers all over the West.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So California.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
California has had well documented fires over the last you know,
five to ten years.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Same thing with Oregon and Washington.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, when you get smoke taint and a wine
it can come off as kind of a smoky flavor.
That's what they call it smoke tank, and there's things
that winemakers can do to minimize that impact. Once the
wine is made and gets into the bottle, you know,
it's it's very much a chemistry assignment.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I went to a wine tasting in Indiana. I don't
know if you know about the wine people in Indiana,
but the guy who owned this particular winery was a
chemist who loved wine bought a winery, so his wine
tasting was unlike anything I've ever been to in my
entire life. And I found out at that wine tasting
that there's all kinds of random things that, on the
(07:14):
face of it would seemed terrible, like certain rots, certain
you know, funguses, things that happened, but they can actually
create a really spectacular wine. You just can't control them.
I was wondering, like, as anybody ever made a smoke
tant wine, that everybody's like this is amazing or is
it one of those things where you just kind of
hope for the best.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Absolutely, I mean there are some people that probably really
like it, you know, the wine community and the Somalia
community out there, you know, they they'll probably judge those
wines a little more stringently, you know, they'll want wines
that don't have those kind of flaws. But look, at
the end of the day, a consumer is the one
that gets to decide whether they like it or not.
(07:51):
And I've met and I've actually had a couple of
wines that had smoked tan on them, and I didn't
find them displeasing at all.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And I think there's different levels of it as well,
So it's.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
It's like the most non committal, not quite a compliment.
I didn't find them displeasing. I'm going to use that
now with my husband when he says, is this okay?
I did not find it displeasing. So the wine industry overall,
and Kevin and I were talking about this off the air,
the wine industry overall has seen a big dip over
the last few years. Younger generations have not started drinking wine,
(08:22):
but some of them have. But you've noticed, like specifically,
they're not necessarily going to do what I did when
I was twenty one years old, which is go buy
a bottle of Sutter Home. But they're also not kind
of sucked into the hype about really expensive wine.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's two things happening right now.
There is simultaneously, actually there is this pro wellness movement
which is a big cultural shift, right and that is
the younger generations, you know, younger millennials, gen z like,
they're at the forefront of that. And then at the
same time we have a big changing of the guard
from which consumers in charge for the wine industry, which
(09:00):
has been the boomers in the past, you know, and
the value proposition to younger wine drinkers is just different.
It's not that they don't want to drink wine's and
they actually do and they actually do understand it. It's
just they are not going to be fed something that
they're not going to buy into.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Right, So is there and I asked, I use the phrase,
I'm like, are they getting craft beard? These big corporations
that sell a ton of wine, they're not necessarily going
to be the first choice for these younger wine drinkers.
Are they getting craft beard? Are they getting out done
with wines with a lower price point but by smaller
vineyards because there's a little bit of a you know,
(09:39):
a little bit of it's a small vineyard, you can
only get it on the Western Slope kind of thing.
There's a little bit of snobbery there, but it's also
affordable snobbery.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
When I was twenty one, or even when I was
twenty four, when I first really got into wine, if
my barrier of entry was an eighty five dollars tasting
just for six one ounce pores, I probably wouldn't have
gone there. So I think that's one of the big
missteps that's still happening in legacy regions in this country,
like Napa and Sonoma. You know, what we try to
(10:07):
do is we've we make really good wine. We're very
proud of the wine that we make, but we make
it approachable and the way that we serve it to
people makes it genuine. It makes it authentic. You know,
we have a story to tell with it, and we're
serving it to them in a way that makes sense.
You know, We're bringing it to them instead of saying, hey,
you have to come to us. And I think that's
a big difference between how the way they used to
(10:28):
do things and how the way we do them now.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
So there are big fires in France right now, and
they are in the wine producing regions. Are you guys
already looking at that saying, okay, are we going to
have a complete lack of French wine competition or do
you even think about it in those terms? Are you
competing with California wines? Are you competing with old world wines?
How do you position yourself mentally for that?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
You know, right now, we just want to own our backyard.
You know, we're firmly getting people in this state to
know that, hey, we make really good wine here that
can stand up on national stages and international stages. And
now we're at Carboy, we're starting to brandch outside of
Colorado and start to make a name for ourselves and
(11:10):
a value proposition for Hey, you know, this is high altitude,
high elevation, you know, desert wine, and it's got a
fun story to tell. So you know, France isn't really
our competitor, and neither is Napa Valley. But what is
in competition is you know, when the consumer goes out
and it goes to a restaurant, Hey, what are they
going to choose to drink? All right, we get a
Colorado of wine on the menu and people say, oh
(11:32):
my gosh, this is really great, you know, and we're
starting to see that more and more now, and that's
really exciting for me. And it's exciting to see some
of our brethren in the industry that are having that
sharing in that moment as well.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So would you talk to other wine makers because I
get the impression, and I could be wrong about this
as well. I get the impression that Colorado's wine industry
is very insulated in that you guys all know each other.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Kind of feels that way. It's a very small industry
and we do know each other. And honestly, this whole
industry to California to Washington, Oregon is very small. I mean,
it's amazing the amount of people that you come across
that have, you know, two or three degrees of separation
all over the place. So it's in Colorado it's even smaller.
But you know, I would like to think that everybody's
in this together, and you know, we have we have
(12:16):
one hundred and fifty wineries in this state, and you
probably we probably only interact with twenty ors.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
So on the reservation, I.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Could probably recognize twenty yeah, maybe twenty five wine makers
here in Colorado. I didn't realize there was that many,
But do you count? And I'm not knocking this. But
these sort of storefront where they're getting grapes from California
and blending their own wines. Do you count those as
a winery? You counting you know, people who are I
guess you'd have to producing grapes. I mean, how do
you define?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I mean, the winery is just the business, right, you know,
it's where you know, so if you're a brewery, you
make beer. If you're a winery, you make wines. So
it's it's where they get the grapes from. I think
that's for the consumer to be able to look at
and say, hey, you know, is this one you know?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Tell me more about this wine? Are these grapes grown here?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And I mean I think those things do matter, and
they think they matter more in wine than they do
in beer and spirits certainly.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, nobody asked where do you get your hops from?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I noticed that years ago, and there is a level
of snobbery there. It's like where do you get your grapes?
It's like, really, could you even tell?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know? So?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And we have to import some grapes, don't we We
don't have enough.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, I mean we have about eight hundred acres planted
across the state, and so there's a lot considering that,
there's a lot of wineries that are not utilizing all
those grapes. But look, when we started, you know, our
first Colorado harvest in twenty seventeen and then twenty eighteen,
there were there was a time, you know, probably twenty
nineteen twenty twenty, what we couldn't buy enough grapes, which
(13:40):
led to us purchasing our own vineyards because we couldn't
get enough. And now show the probably have there's probably
plenty of grapes that we could buy out there. But
you know, we also outgrew our ability to produce grapes
in Colorado on our own, so we ended up planting
in Washington State like five or six years ago as well.
And that wine really just kind of supplements our programs
(14:00):
with the restaurants. But you know, the Colorado wines that
we make are that's our lead foot.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So are you guys still experimenting? And last time I
talked to you, we were talking about experimenting with different grapes,
more native grapes, things of that. How is that experimentation
panning out?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh, it's great.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I mean it's every year we're like Okay, this is
it's literally what more?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
What new can we do?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So you know last year we introduced I think the
last time I was on the show, we introduced our coseco,
which is Colorado Perseco. Yeah, and now this year we're like,
you know, we should follow that up and do a Lambrusco.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
You know, doc, Oh my god, that's my mom. Just
have some fun.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Look straight out in nineteen seventies, you just hit me
with the Lambrusco. Which you like the Lambrusco, but I
still love the Native Fiz. That is the one that
is my absolute favorite, and it's just so perfect for summer. Kevin,
what is the next big thing out of Carboy? I
feel like every time I talk to you, there's just
more and more and more. Obviously, the tasting room in
(14:57):
Colorado Springs is a big deal. What's next?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Right now, the name of the game for us is
just increasing quality.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, we were very fortunate.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
We just had twelve wines place really amazing scores and
wine enthusiasts and James Suckling and that's only going to
help further Colorado Wine and a lot of people to.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Hey, take a serious look at this region.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
And then you know, we'll probably get a little antsy
in the pants and start looking for another location, and
that may be out of state.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I don't know. I might tease that a little bit.
Give me out of state, so look at you.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I don't know, maybe, IDK, maybe I'll take it back later.
I don't know. Kevin Weber with Carbo Winery. I love
what's happened in Colorado wine because when I first got here,
I got given bottles of Colorado wine. And I'm not
going to mention any wine makers, but I never bought
a bottle of Colorado wine after that. It was not good.
And what's happened since then, in the last thirteen years
(15:49):
that I've been here, has just been remarkable. You guys
and all of the other vendors that are just doing
amazing wines. I just think it's a great story.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Oh I appreciate that if we need more people spread
in that kind of gospel.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So well, this texture just said, Mandy. We just did
the wine tour. We did the wine trolley tour and
Carboy was on there and we had an amazing time
and really great wine and buying and ended up buying
six bottles. They're awesome. There you go, Kevin. I appreciate
you making the trip. Man, we'll see you again.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Thank you.
Carboy Winery. One of the reasons I like talking to
you guys is because I think you and correct me
if I'm wrong. I feel like you were the first
Colorado winery. You sort of figured it out. You figured
out how to make great wine in this climate with
grapes that grow here, and you created a tasting experience,
a tasting room experience complete with a meat aquarium where
(00:20):
you make like dried meat in there. So you're, in
a way to me, you represent kind of the og
of the Colorado wine scene that is now massive, and
there's so many great wineries in Colorado, and when I
moved here in twenty thirteen, I could not say.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That, Yeah. I mean, I think Colorado wine is having
a moment.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't I don't want to give ourselves too much
of a bat on the back thinking that we're the ogs,
but of this kind of new renaissance of Colorado wine
or new pioneers. You know, we just had a goal
that when we started that we wanted to, you know,
take this industry and prove that we could put our
wines on a world stage. And we just wanted to
have fun while we were doing it. And it's kind
(01:00):
of taken an organic route where it has where we've
grown as big as we've been.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, I might come to the Chasing Room because the
one in Littleton, right next to Breconridge Rwy. Is just spectacular,
And I think you demonstrated that you can make the
entire wine thing an experience in Colorado the same way
it's been in Napa for a long time. I mean,
you go to California and there are tons of venues
like the ones that you guys have, but we didn't really.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Have that here.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So now you're expanding even more. Tell me about the
new Chasing Room in Colorado Springs.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, so we just opened Colorado Springs as our fifth
tasting room location for Carboy, and we opened it alongside
our sister restaurant, Angelo's Taverna, which is a copycat of
the fifty year old staple that we took over in
twenty thirteen, and Capitol Hill, and you know, we just
wanted to keep spreading the gospel of what we're doing
where we're merging you know, great food and experience with
(01:52):
wine and really just getting Colorado wine. It's it's due,
you know, So that's we're excited to be down there.
Great community, and we've been looking forward to being down
there for a couple of years now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So well, and I said earlier that you can overlook
Garden of Gods. That's not it, but you can see
Pipe's Peak. So where I mean, what is the view.
You got a patio, you got garage doors, people can
get that indoor outdoor experience. What are people going to
see when they're sitting in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The tasting room.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
So it's a double decker concept right off of I
twenty five and Woodman. So it's the old an old
Chicago that was basically Okay that we took over and
we put the Angelo's to ver in a restaurant on
the on the base level and put the tasting room
up up above on the rooftop. So we've got this
big garage door that opens up that looks right at
Pike's Peak. It's it's a beautiful tasting room. You know,
(02:38):
every time we open up a new taste room like,
oh this is my favorite taste room, but this one,
this one really does have that really nice tasting room feel.
It's got some of the components of you know, aesthetics
from the other taste rooms that we have around the state.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
But it's a it's a great spot.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So let's talk a little bit about some of the
stuff that's happening with your wine and you're just you
guys got a new certification and for the way that
you're making wine. And I know that in wine making
that is becoming a bigger deal. People want to know
what's in their wine bottle, right, they want to know
that everything, how everything was made, how is that, what
is that process? Like, what did you just achieve?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, well, we just achieved was a silver metal recognition
from Colorado Green Business Network, and it has more to
do with just the incremental steps that we're committing to
in our industry because making wine, making spirits, you know,
it's not the cleanest product.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
You know, you use a lot of wine. There's a
lot of resources.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
You know, forty percent of the of the product comes
in the form of packaging. And that's something that we've
excelled in since day one, where you know, about half
of the twenty eight thousand cases equivalent that we make
every year goes into stainless recyclable format, you know, for
it's stainless steel kegs, and so that's something that it's
always been you know, something we've done.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
But every year we trying to level up.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know, we're putting solar out in our vineyard in
Palisade where you know, we put a gray water system
in when we open up that location as well, And
so every year we're just looking at, hey, what more
can we do to take more incremental steps and being
making a more sustainable product and being more sustainable business.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Are you using graywater on the vines?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay, because in Florida people don't know this. It's been
in Florida where it rains every day and we don't
have the water problems we have here. They take the
gray water, which has been treated a little bit. It's
not toxic, it doesn't have poop in it's it's been
treated the first round. It's just not appropriate for drinking.
And that's what you use for irrigation on your lawn.
So to hear that, that's one of the things when
I moved out here, I was like, wait, what we
(04:33):
don't do that? Seems like it would make even more
sense out here because you're not wasting water that would
otherwise be good for drinking just with irrigation. Does that
make a difference, Does any of this make a difference
in the quality of the wine that you guys are producing.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I don't think the water necessarily does. I mean to
understand grape growing. You know, there's grapes. They only want
a certain amount of water anyway, So getting a ton
of rain isn't great, especially this time of year as
the grapes are starting to get ready for harvest. So
it's not something where the type of water you're using
is going to influence it as much as the soil
(05:08):
where the grape vines are planted.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So when you talk about the rain that we're having
now and the big drought, how is the drought? How
is this?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
How are your grapes doing. The grapes are actually doing
pretty fantastic. I was more concerned about the fires, you know,
especially the ones in Utahs that were coming there. But
we get you know, we we got lucky that when
the smoke came through the valley, it did so at
a time when the grapes are at a point where
they're not as susceptible to getting things like smoke taint
(05:36):
earlier on in your It is a thing. Yeah, yes,
right now, we've got a lot of grapes that are
starting what's called vasion, where the grapes that are all
start off green they start to turn you know, their
their respective colors, and so the grape skins they start to.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Get a little thinner.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
This is the point in time where if we had
wildfires and a lot of smoke in the valley where
we would be really concerned. You probably be turning on
fan if you're a vineyard owner that has fans to
try to keep that smoke off of them.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But that would be my biggest concern out there. You know,
we're fortunate.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Enough that we haven't been as impacted by the drought
as much as you maybe here on the front range.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Well, I'm actually fascinated by the smoke tant So we're
going to ask one more follow up. So could you
not make a wine? What does it do to the
wine or can you even use it?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
At that point? Oh yeah, you could definitely use that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
I mean, smoke is no smoke tints is nothing new
to wine makers all over the West.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
So California.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
California has had well documented fires over the last you know,
five to ten years.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Same thing with Oregon and Washington.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
You know, when you get smoke taint and a wine
it can come off as kind of a smoky flavor.
That's what they call it smoke tank, and there's things
that winemakers can do to minimize that impact. Once the
wine is made and gets into the bottle, you know,
it's it's very much a chemistry assignment.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I went to a wine tasting in Indiana. I don't
know if you know about the wine people in Indiana,
but the guy who owned this particular winery was a
chemist who loved wine bought a winery, so his wine
tasting was unlike anything I've ever been to in my
entire life. And I found out at that wine tasting
that there's all kinds of random things that, on the
(07:14):
face of it would seemed terrible, like certain rots, certain
you know, funguses, things that happened, but they can actually
create a really spectacular wine. You just can't control them.
I was wondering, like, as anybody ever made a smoke
tant wine, that everybody's like this is amazing or is
it one of those things where you just kind of
hope for the best.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Absolutely, I mean there are some people that probably really
like it, you know, the wine community and the Somalia
community out there, you know, they they'll probably judge those
wines a little more stringently, you know, they'll want wines
that don't have those kind of flaws. But look, at
the end of the day, a consumer is the one
that gets to decide whether they like it or not.
(07:51):
And I've met and I've actually had a couple of
wines that had smoked tan on them, and I didn't
find them displeasing at all.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And I think there's different levels of it as well,
So it's.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
It's like the most non committal, not quite a compliment.
I didn't find them displeasing. I'm going to use that
now with my husband when he says, is this okay?
I did not find it displeasing. So the wine industry overall,
and Kevin and I were talking about this off the air,
the wine industry overall has seen a big dip over
the last few years. Younger generations have not started drinking wine,
(08:22):
but some of them have. But you've noticed, like specifically,
they're not necessarily going to do what I did when
I was twenty one years old, which is go buy
a bottle of Sutter Home. But they're also not kind
of sucked into the hype about really expensive wine.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, I mean, there's there's two things happening right now.
There is simultaneously, actually there is this pro wellness movement
which is a big cultural shift, right and that is
the younger generations, you know, younger millennials, gen z like,
they're at the forefront of that. And then at the
same time we have a big changing of the guard
from which consumers in charge for the wine industry, which
(09:00):
has been the boomers in the past, you know, and
the value proposition to younger wine drinkers is just different.
It's not that they don't want to drink wine's and
they actually do and they actually do understand it. It's
just they are not going to be fed something that
they're not going to buy into.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Right, So is there and I asked, I use the phrase,
I'm like, are they getting craft beard? These big corporations
that sell a ton of wine, they're not necessarily going
to be the first choice for these younger wine drinkers.
Are they getting craft beard? Are they getting out done
with wines with a lower price point but by smaller
vineyards because there's a little bit of a you know,
(09:39):
a little bit of it's a small vineyard, you can
only get it on the Western Slope kind of thing.
There's a little bit of snobbery there, but it's also
affordable snobbery.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
When I was twenty one, or even when I was
twenty four, when I first really got into wine, if
my barrier of entry was an eighty five dollars tasting
just for six one ounce pores, I probably wouldn't have
gone there. So I think that's one of the big
missteps that's still happening in legacy regions in this country,
like Napa and Sonoma. You know, what we try to
(10:07):
do is we've we make really good wine. We're very
proud of the wine that we make, but we make
it approachable and the way that we serve it to
people makes it genuine. It makes it authentic. You know,
we have a story to tell with it, and we're
serving it to them in a way that makes sense.
You know, We're bringing it to them instead of saying, hey,
you have to come to us. And I think that's
a big difference between how the way they used to
(10:28):
do things and how the way we do them now.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
So there are big fires in France right now, and
they are in the wine producing regions. Are you guys
already looking at that saying, okay, are we going to
have a complete lack of French wine competition or do
you even think about it in those terms? Are you
competing with California wines? Are you competing with old world wines?
How do you position yourself mentally for that?
Speaker 3 (10:50):
You know, right now, we just want to own our backyard.
You know, we're firmly getting people in this state to
know that, hey, we make really good wine here that
can stand up on national stages and international stages. And
now we're at Carboy, we're starting to brandch outside of
Colorado and start to make a name for ourselves and
(11:10):
a value proposition for Hey, you know, this is high altitude,
high elevation, you know, desert wine, and it's got a
fun story to tell. So you know, France isn't really
our competitor, and neither is Napa Valley. But what is
in competition is you know, when the consumer goes out
and it goes to a restaurant, Hey, what are they
going to choose to drink? All right, we get a
Colorado of wine on the menu and people say, oh
(11:32):
my gosh, this is really great, you know, and we're
starting to see that more and more now, and that's
really exciting for me. And it's exciting to see some
of our brethren in the industry that are having that
sharing in that moment as well.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So would you talk to other wine makers because I
get the impression, and I could be wrong about this
as well. I get the impression that Colorado's wine industry
is very insulated in that you guys all know each other.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Kind of feels that way. It's a very small industry
and we do know each other. And honestly, this whole
industry to California to Washington, Oregon is very small. I mean,
it's amazing the amount of people that you come across
that have, you know, two or three degrees of separation
all over the place. So it's in Colorado it's even smaller.
But you know, I would like to think that everybody's
in this together, and you know, we have we have
(12:16):
one hundred and fifty wineries in this state, and you
probably we probably only interact with twenty ors.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
So on the reservation, I.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Could probably recognize twenty yeah, maybe twenty five wine makers
here in Colorado. I didn't realize there was that many,
But do you count? And I'm not knocking this. But
these sort of storefront where they're getting grapes from California
and blending their own wines. Do you count those as
a winery? You counting you know, people who are I
guess you'd have to producing grapes. I mean, how do
you define?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
I mean, the winery is just the business, right, you know,
it's where you know, so if you're a brewery, you
make beer. If you're a winery, you make wines. So
it's it's where they get the grapes from. I think
that's for the consumer to be able to look at
and say, hey, you know, is this one you know?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Tell me more about this wine? Are these grapes grown here?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And I mean I think those things do matter, and
they think they matter more in wine than they do
in beer and spirits certainly.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, nobody asked where do you get your hops from?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That?
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I noticed that years ago, and there is a level
of snobbery there. It's like where do you get your grapes?
It's like, really, could you even tell?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
You know? So?
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And we have to import some grapes, don't we We
don't have enough.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, I mean we have about eight hundred acres planted
across the state, and so there's a lot considering that,
there's a lot of wineries that are not utilizing all
those grapes. But look, when we started, you know, our
first Colorado harvest in twenty seventeen and then twenty eighteen,
there were there was a time, you know, probably twenty
nineteen twenty twenty, what we couldn't buy enough grapes, which
(13:40):
led to us purchasing our own vineyards because we couldn't
get enough. And now show the probably have there's probably
plenty of grapes that we could buy out there. But
you know, we also outgrew our ability to produce grapes
in Colorado on our own, so we ended up planting
in Washington State like five or six years ago as well.
And that wine really just kind of supplements our programs
(14:00):
with the restaurants. But you know, the Colorado wines that
we make are that's our lead foot.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So are you guys still experimenting? And last time I
talked to you, we were talking about experimenting with different grapes,
more native grapes, things of that. How is that experimentation
panning out?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh, it's great.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I mean it's every year we're like Okay, this is
it's literally what more?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
What new can we do?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So you know last year we introduced I think the
last time I was on the show, we introduced our coseco,
which is Colorado Perseco. Yeah, and now this year we're like,
you know, we should follow that up and do a Lambrusco.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
You know, doc, Oh my god, that's my mom. Just
have some fun.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Look straight out in nineteen seventies, you just hit me
with the Lambrusco. Which you like the Lambrusco, but I
still love the Native Fiz. That is the one that
is my absolute favorite, and it's just so perfect for summer. Kevin,
what is the next big thing out of Carboy? I
feel like every time I talk to you, there's just
more and more and more. Obviously, the tasting room in
(14:57):
Colorado Springs is a big deal. What's next?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
You know?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Right now, the name of the game for us is
just increasing quality.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know, we were very fortunate.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
We just had twelve wines place really amazing scores and
wine enthusiasts and James Suckling and that's only going to
help further Colorado Wine and a lot of people to.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Hey, take a serious look at this region.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
And then you know, we'll probably get a little antsy
in the pants and start looking for another location, and
that may be out of state.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
I don't know. I might tease that a little bit.
Give me out of state, so look at you.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
I don't know, maybe, IDK, maybe I'll take it back later.
I don't know. Kevin Weber with Carbo Winery. I love
what's happened in Colorado wine because when I first got here,
I got given bottles of Colorado wine. And I'm not
going to mention any wine makers, but I never bought
a bottle of Colorado wine after that. It was not good.
And what's happened since then, in the last thirteen years
(15:49):
that I've been here, has just been remarkable. You guys
and all of the other vendors that are just doing
amazing wines. I just think it's a great story.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Oh I appreciate that if we need more people spread
in that kind of gospel.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So well, this texture just said, Mandy. We just did
the wine tour. We did the wine trolley tour and
Carboy was on there and we had an amazing time
and really great wine and buying and ended up buying
six bottles. They're awesome. There you go, Kevin. I appreciate
you making the trip. Man, we'll see you again.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Thank you.
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