[LordOpie]

The Colorado tasting
State takes home the glass slipper in a wine-world Cinderella story
By Roger Fillion, Rocky Mountain News
May 29, 2007
Get ready to challenge your preconceived notions about Colorado wines, traditionally thought to be inferior to those from California, France and elsewhere.
Inspired by a famous wine tasting 31 years ago, we pitted some well-regarded Colorado wines against comparably priced red and white wines from California.

The result: a stunning upset.

Two Colorado whites - the 2004 Plum Creek chardonnay and the 2005 BookCliff Vineyards chardonnay - defeated the California whites based on a blind tasting by a panel of wine experts we assembled.

And a Colorado red - Sutcliffe Vineyards' 2004 Ddraig Goch - tied for No. 1 with a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, the 2004 Hess Collection Allomi.

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My wife personally blind-tasted Sutcliffe wines against comparable well-known respected wines with several of her clients. They all said Sutcliffe was as good or better.

I think we're going to visit Sutcliffe winery later this summer when we find some time since it's ~6-hour drive.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Hats off. Now if they can do it consistently we'll have something...

 

[OGRipper]

That's pretty cool. I haven't tried any Colorado wines and would like to.

I have to say though, it kinda smells like some regional bias played a role. Coming from a Californian that may sound like sour grapes (heh heh, get it?), but the tasters were all from Colorado and the other wines are not exactly powerhouses. I mean, the most shocking part of the '76 Paris tasting was that the judges were mostly French yet they still picked California wines that were up against some of the most vaunted French bottles. It would have had less impact if the judges were Californians and they were tasting lesser bottles eh?

 

[DRB]

It'd be better if it came in a box.