Making wine on the western slope: Grand Junction, Palisade Vineyards appealing to a national taste.

• Author: Titus, Stephen
• Position: Who owns Colorado

WINE MAKING IS AN ART. THE CHEMISTRY IS COMPLEX, AND PROBLEMS THAT CAN ARISE BETWEEN VINE AND BOTTLE ARE MANY.

Wine making is also serious business. Tricky accounting processes, huge capital outlays and years of product development before first bottles make it to liquor-store shelves can play havoc with a business plan.

Yet Colorado vineyard and winery owners have built the states wine industry to the point where it is getting national attention, with vintners from all over the country buying Colorado grapes and Colorado-made wines scoring medals at several national and international competitions.

The industry has also made Grand Junction and Palisade--the region of the state best suited for growing grapes--a tourist destination. Coloradans and travelers come to the area from within and outside the state to sample product from one or more of the region's 15 wineries.

Interestingly, the recent growth of Colorado's wine industry was spurred by the oil-and-gas industry collapse of the early 1980s.

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"There was a shortage of grapes at the time and most of the vineyards were small, experimental farms," said Stephen Smith, who formerly made a living in oil and gas and is now owner of Grand Mesa Vineyards. "In 1986, some of my oil-and-gas buddies got some grapes from a friend in Palisade and made a blended Cabernet Sauvignon. It was so good I started immediately looking for some suitable land and closed on it in spring 1986.

"Back then, the area was still under burden of the oil-shale bust so there were a lot of foreclosed properties. The one I started with was a foreclosed property."

Smith added several more parcels of land over the years and now manages 92 acres, with more than 80 of them planted in grapes. His wine production this year will top 8,000 cases, making him one of the top four producers in Colorado.

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While success in business--and a love of wine--are the common threads among many wine producers in Palisade and the Grand Junction area, the type of businesses wine makers come from are as different as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Bob Whitham, owner of Two Rivers Winery in Palisade, came to wine making from a career in long-term care for the elderly. Whitham and his wife, an accountant, are wine lovers, but they approached their new careers with a business owner's eye.

"Because we're making wine and aging wine, you need access to capital so you can grow the business...