We returned from our Denver trip last week and we made it a point to visit a few wine hangouts again this year. This time we visited Creekside Cellars in Evergreen (for the second time) and the new ‘Carboy’ in downtown Denver.
Creekside Cellars has been in operation for well over a decade now. They have a bit of an innocuous restaurant/tasting room/winery right in downtown Evergreen, which is a short trip into the mountains from Denver proper. This was our second visit, as we drove and wanted to make sure and bring wine back with us. The restaurant is cozy, with an acoustic musician playing and friendly servers. It was filled when we visited at lunch, so we did a short tasting at the bar. They source (to my knowledge) all of their grapes from vineyards in Colorado, and specialize in Bordeaux varietals. I’ll spare the extensive tasting notes, but the general style of winemaking is heavily extracted and tannic reds with a nice french oak barrel collection and some bottle aging as well. My personal favorite was a varietal Petite Verdot, which had delightful black fruit with a hint of dusty earth. The tannins on this wine were no exception, but they were integrated and complemented the panini we had for lunch very well. Their flagship blend is ‘Robusto’ which is exactly that: Robust. It clearly is built to age and could stand up to a bordeaux blend from anywhere in the world. At $65/bottle this is their most expensive, but clearly most highly regarded wine. The white wines were all well made and had a good variety. We were particularly pleased with the Riesling, and really enjoyed the Colorado expression. The rest of their wines are listed on the website, http://creeksidecellars.net/NEWSTORE/index.html.
As for Carboy, their tasting room downtown was quite new. They made it very clear on their menu that they are a negociant winery, and have the origin of all of the wines they offer by the glass (in kegs) right on the tasting menu. No guesses there. We were there too late in the evening to do a true tasting, but were able to share a few different glasses with friends. We also enjoyed a charcouterie board, which is really the only fare they offer. I chose a white blend from Colorado, as that was the primary purpose of my visit, and was happy with the selection. Surprisingly nice acidity, which was refreshing after a long day. They have a small winery on site, with a decent mix of new barrels from various cooperages, and maybe 10 tanks or so. Overall, it was a nice place to hang out with typical ‘city’ prices on their glass pours. We would probably return for a true tasting, just to check out the rest of their wine list. Shop Wines | Carboy Winery
In the past we’ve also checked out Infinite Monkey Theorem, but had to skip this time. We enjoyed an extremely nice Sherry tasting at the restaurant Barcelona, and will absolutely be back there.
Thank you for indulging my Denver tasting room visits! We hope to have some time to get into the true ‘Colorado wine country’ in the future, from what I’ve tasted it’s been a real treat.
The quality level of Colorado wines has in my opinion really gone up. If you had a Colorado wine 5-10 years ago, most were what I would call “tourist” wines. Today, there are some strong contenders that I would put up against wines from more established states like OR, WA or CA.
Creekside is always one of our favorite Front Range wineries. In addition to the legacy Bordeaux styles, she makes some great Rhone blends as well.
When you come back you need to check out some of the dozens of wineries in the Grand Valley or West Elks. Many have expanded beyond just tasting rooms, adding food and music to their offerings and most are in awesome settings.
We enjoy the wines and/or visits to The Storm Cellar, Bookcliff and Restoration vineyards.
My in-laws live in Evergreen and talk highly of Creekside. I don’t know if I’ve had their wines though. Bookcliff is good. Infinite Monkey is decent enough and a fun spot. Not something I would buy for home consumption but OK as a restaurant house wine option. I’ve had Carboy at their Littleton winery and it’s pretty uninspiring, not someplace I would go back to.
Creekside makes really decent wines. Great antipasto platter as well, which the wines work well with.
I only recommend Balistreri Vineyards as you can taste all 20 wines they make for free. Think we tried 13 or so and settled on the Malbec which was probably the best to me, plus after the many pours I was starting to feel pretty good and they have food to order. Its in an industrial area, but have a sitting area out front.
And actually Vino Salida Winery in Salida is pretty decent. Right at the junction of 285 and 50. They get their grapes from Palisades but make the wine down there in Salida. A little over priced but their “regular” wines are decent, Chardonnay, Merlot and Cab Franc. Didn’t care for their Vermouth or Honey Mead. Haven’t seen them for sale in Denver but it’s worth a stop if you’re down there rafting or heading to the Sangre de Cristos.
Michael,
To me the whites were almost undrinkable. The reds were boozy, a bit thin for me and many lacking a fruit profile, even the Syrah blend where they get the grapes from Cali. The Malbec worked for me. The dessert wines, were ok. Maybe they just make too many wines and need to put more detail into many less with more quality in the cellar.
We seem to be picking up a few more wine centric spots in Denver recently. We’ve been so swamped with brewpubs maybe the hipsters tastebuds are starting to mature?
New spots downtown:
Noble Riot
Barcelona Wine Bar
Sunday Vinyl, which is a “Record Spinning Wine Bar from Frasca”. Haven’t been here yet but Frasca is one of the top restaurants in Boulder with a highly regarded wine list.
Lets hope someday we can get restaurants to allow us to bring our own with a modest corkage fee. If you can walk around Denver high on mushrooms, is bringing your own bottle too much to ask?
Not blaming the restaurants. Maybe its time to change that law. Last time I was at CRU downtown just wish I was able to bring my own. Food was good, wine list was meh…
Legislature won’t do it, no reason for them to and probably restaurant lobby would resist. Would have to be a ballot initiative or something. I’d be all for it. Most wine lists are mediocre or way over priced if there’s anything decent and there’s rarely anything properly aged.
Lack of a legal corkage policy is probably my biggest fault with Colorado. We have met WB’er at Union Station and BYOB (glasses too) but this stupid state law has certainly put a dampener on CO WB’er get togethers that would traditionally be held in restaurants. FWIW, I’m happy to host a WB’er Rhone dinner in January if folks are interested? We hosted about 12 of these in Chicago starting in 2001