Valentine's at BookCliff Vineyards

Why wait until Valentine's Day? Come and visit the tasting room on Saturday the 9th, 2013 and Sunday the 10th, 2013 for wine, chocolate and music.  You have our permission to indulge yourself and enjoy a flight of three wines perfectly paired with three chocolates from Concertos in Chocolates . Listen to live music (jazz piano) on Saturday 2/9/13 from 2:00pm - 5:00pm. 

Date: 2/9/13, 2/10/13

Time: 1:00pm - 6:00pm

Cost: Chocolate and wine pairing flight $8.00

Location: 1501 Lee Hill Road Unit #17, Boulder, CO 80304

Out with Lucky Twenty and in with Friday's Folly White

The time has come for Lucky Twenty to move over and make room for the Friday's Folly White. We always thought of the Folly and the Lucky to be companions -  a red blend and a white blend. But why not give buddies the same name, so people have an easier time finding them. The Lucky Twenty has been sold out for a while and the new version is in the works. As you know, creating blends is not an easy task and takes a lot of tasting sometimes over 40 versions. There are so many different ways to blend Chardonnay, Riesling, Muscat Blanc and Viognier and sometimes we add a little of Orange Muscat just for fun. Look for the new release soon in your neighborhood liquor store.

The 2011 Ensemble is in the Bottle

For the past three weeks we have blending and tasting and blending some more followed by more tasting to get the 2011 Ensemble just right. The majority of the grapes are Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, to be precise 84 percent. But, it is the remaining 16 percent that made the most work. Malbec, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah share the remaining 16 percent. The goal was to make a smooth wine with complex flavors and a long finish. The plan is to squeeze all these names on the front label, rather than calling it a Red Table Wine. We will let it rest in the bottle as we wait for the labels to be printed and approved before we will release the wine. We will give a preview to our guests during the January Local Chefs Dinner.

Urban Winefest

Hey all! The Colorado Urban Winefest is coming to the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver June 8. You bet we'll be there! This is the third annual Winefest and dozens of Colorado wineries will be attending as well.  Top Denver Chefs will be there with delicious food demos, there will also be live entertainment to compliment your wine. This is a celebration of local wine and fare. Enjoy live cooking demonstrations, free samples of wine,  including a free commemorative wine glass, and talented live local artists. You get the luxury of buying artisan wines directly from winemakers. Parking is free!

Hope to see you all June 8 for a great day filled with fun. Purchase your tickets here.

The First Wine Festival of the Year

It is hard to believe, we just made baby steps into the new year and there is already a wine and beer festival around the corner. Only in Colorado where the micro breweries and wineries chomp at the bit from the get-go. This festival is in the beautiful town of Estes Park and comes with a chili cook-off for restaurants and amateurs alike. Enjoy the live music, great food and drink and have a fun time with the family. The event is on the weekend of 1/18/13 - 1/20/13 from 11:00am to 5:00pm both on Saturday and Sunday. BookCliff Vineyards will be there and so will be a slate of other wineries. For tickets and more information click here.

Happy New Year!

Brrrrr! Hope everyone out there is staying warm and had a wonderful holiday! As we get ready for the new year we're working hard to get some new vintages out. Yesterday we filtered a few of our white wines including Muscat Blanc and Chardonnay. The machine in the picture is how we filter out sediment as the wine finishes it's process. We use pads with different pore sizes during three different filter runs. We pump the wine from it's current tank, into the filter and then out to a new tank. After that we clean the previous tank the wine was in, as larger sediment has already settled at the bottom creating a muck. When cleaning a tank it's really important to be thorough no matter how tedious it may be as bacteria forms in corners and crevices if left unclean and then will cause problems in the next wine that enters the tank. Rain-boots and gloves required, or you'll end up soaking wet after this endeavor. 

Have a safe and happy New Year, come pick up a bottle of our Petit Sirah sold in the tasting room to celebrate with friends and family. 

Blending wine starts with moving it

Before you can start blending wine you need to move all the pieces in the right place. This is almost like a chess game with 600 pound pieces. A forklift helps a great deal. All the barrels with wine to be blended need to be located next to each other. As we are a small winery freeing up the right tank for the blending is also a logistically puzzle. Blending starts with organizing, preparing then blending in the small (glasses) before blending in the big (tanks) and finally bottling. Let's have the fun begin.