Visiting with winemakers is one of my favorite parts of wine
writing. The love these individuals
exhibit for their crafts is absolutely contagious. Learning about wines from those whose blood,
sweat, and tears created the beverages I’m sipping is a truly eye-opening and
awe-inspiring experience. Every
winemaker I have ever spoken with has left me a more knowledgeable consumer and a more passionate drinker (if that is even possible).
This is the exact case when I was able to talk and taste
with Michelle Cleveland, winemaker for Creekside Cellars in Evergreen,
Colorado. Her understanding of wine and
the winemaking process, coupled with her love of Colorado, shows in every bottle
she produces.
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| Michelle Cleveland showing some of her wines in barrel. |
Michelle’s road to wine making in Colorado was a curvy
one. It started in Illinois when
Michelle graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in
agriculture. She eventually found her
way to Denver as the Director of Production and Distribution and a Master Roaster
for Dazbog coffee. (Yes, Michelle worked
with the other beverage of the gods, coffee, before she worked with wine—that could
just possibly be like winning the employment lottery!)
Michelle often hiked in Evergreen, the small mountain town
just west of Denver; she also attended the Colorado Mountain Wine Fest on multiple
occasions. She saw the wines from
Creekside Cellars at the festival and then saw the winery in Evergreen—a former
service station along Bear Creek converted to a restaurant and tasting room. Bill and Anita Donahue opened the winery in
1996 and purchased their own vineyard acreage in Palisade (the Grand Valley of
Colorado) in 2002 to grow the grapes for Creekside Cellars.
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| Creekside Cellars. |
Michelle got to know Bill and started spending time at the
winery. She then put her agriculture
background to good use as she volunteered for a year assisting with production. Though her agriculture degree was helpful,
Michelle wanted more formal education dealing with the production of wine. She enrolled in the online enology program
through prestigious UC Davis. In
2007-2008, she took over as the official Creekside Cellars wine maker.
Creekside Cellars primarily uses Grand Valley grapes
supplemented with some Washington state grapes when Colorado’s growing area has
a difficult year. Reds, whites, roses,
and desserts are all produced right at the Evergreen facility. Both blends and single varietals are made
from petit verdot, syrah, petite sirah, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet
franc, cinsaut, mourvedre, viognier, chardonnay, riesling, sauvignon blanc,
moscato bianco, moscato arancio, and moscato d’amburgo. In addition to quality wines, the café at
Creekside Cellars has a talented chef who has created an impressive Italian-inspired
menu serving flavorful panini sandwiches, unique insalatas, and an impressive antipasto
platter.
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| Award-winning wines made at the Evergreen facility. |
All of this is located on the banks of Bear Creek, where the
name Creekside Cellars originates. The
winery is open for production, tasting, and food all year. However, the prime time for a patio lover
like me to go taste wines is during the spring, summer, or fall. When the weather is nice, a seat on the patio
gives a magnificent view of the stream below, the trees beyond, and the wildlife
outdoors. If the sense of sight isn’t
enough to make customers happy, the babbling of the brook truly makes this
location one-of-a-kind.
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| Scenes from Creekside Cellars' beautiful patio. |
This natural beauty was the backdrop for the tasting
Michelle did with me and my daughter.
Throughout the wine lineup, Michelle’s passion and knowledge for wine
were evident. Her teaching background
was also quite obvious; Michelle co-teaches enology classes at the Denver Metro
campus. These classes divide time
between classroom instruction and hands-on work at the winery with Michelle. My twenty-two year old learned more from this
one tasting with Michelle than she had in a decade of me spouting wine
information. Michelle’s students at
Metro are lucky to have her—I saw that first hand.
All of Creekside Cellars’ wines have an old-world quality
about them. Michelle works with the
vineyard managers to harvest grapes at a slightly higher acid level than many
other wine makers in the state. She does
fine and filter all her wines, yet she often takes a more hands-off role in
wine production, making sure to let the grapes do the work and not “bastardizing”
the grape variety through over-manipulation.
I enjoyed every wine we tasted that day; several were standouts.
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| Michelle and her wines--a woman and her passion. |
2012 Chardonnay—With grapes sourced from Book Cliff
vineyards near Creekside’s Palisade site, this chard has slight butter and
golden fruit on the nose. On the palate,
there is again the slight butter, but also fruit—honeycrisp apple and cantelope—and
floral notes before a pleasant, long finish.
Michelle explained the slight butter was purposeful. When she first started making the wine, the
original chard was much too buttery for her.
She “weaned” the wine off the oak over the years for a less buttery style
that shows more fruit. (I purchased this bottle for a chardonnay-loving friend.)
2012 Riesling—Sourced from Creekside’s own Palisade fruit,
this dryer style of riesling is a great example of what the grape can be. On the nose, the slight petrol and mineral of
a typical riesling are evident. On the
palate, golden delicious apple, fresh herbs, and slight floral notes
prevail. As a dry riesling fan, I
purchased this bottle. Can’t wait to sip
on it again.
Dry Rose—The cinsaut and mouvedre for this rose blend are
sourced from other Colorado growers. (I
love that Michelle uses an obscure grape like cinsaut!) The beautiful salmon color leads to green
herbs and strawberry on the nose and palate with perfect acid. The finish lasts forever. My only complaint about this wine is that it
is not yet bottled, so a future trip or an online-shopping spree to purchase is
in my future.
Rosso—A cinsaut, mouvedre, syrah, and cab sauv blend, this
wine sees French oak for nine months. The
wine shows earth, cherry, smoke, and pepper on the nose before revealing
raspberry, strawberry, and forest floor on the palate. The evolution in the mouth goes from fruit to
tannin back to fruit before a long finish.
Great acid makes this a nice pairing wine for the Italian menu of the café.
2010 Syrah—Creekside’s Palisade vineyards provide the basis
for this Syrah that also has two percent viognier, mouvedre, and cinsaut
(future vintages will also have a small amount of counoise, another obscure
grape.) White pepper and ripe red fruits
show on both the nose and the palate. Like
all of Michelle’s Creekside Cellars’ wines, this wine has less than fourteen
percent alcohol, making it possible for the ripe fruits to show through.
2012 Robusto—The most popular wine at Creekside, this wine
regularly sells out. Because of this, we
drank the Bordeaux blend (blended with a heavier dose of cab franc) from the
barrel. This wine is a superb blend with
good structure. It is bold and robust
yet has ripe fruit with balanced tannins.
Nothing is overdone, which is why locals and tourists alike love it. It is another purchase I will have to make in
the future.
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| Our fantastic tasting on the patio. |
Tasting with a wine maker is truly a learning experience,
especially when that wine maker is a passionate teacher of the beverage, like
Michelle Cleveland. Getting the inside
story from the person who makes the beautiful drink in the glass one is sipping
is an awesome experience. Michelle’s
knowledge of and love for wine—her wines—comes through in every sip from the
glass. The beautiful surroundings on the
Creekside Cellars’ patio only enhanced an afternoon of delicious wines and
informative conversation. Thank you,
Michelle!
