WHEN KAIBAB SAUVAGE STARTED FARMING at 20, he wasn’t thinking about disrupting preconceptions of Colorado wine. He was simply following an instinct. “I believe that you don’t pick farming. I think farming picks you,” Sauvage said. “You’re either bitten by the bug or not.”

That bug led him to wine grapes, a relatively new crop in his area that intrigued him because, as he puts it, they bring together “the best of science and farming.” Two decades later, Sauvage and his partner and winemaker Patric Matysiewski are running Sauvage Spectrum Estate Winery & Vineyard in Palisade, Colorado, crafting wines from varieties that would make many do a double-take: Zweigelt, Teroldego, Gruner Veltliner, and yes, even Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec-all vinifera, all thriving at elevation.

Their flagship 2023 Grand Vin, a red blend Matysiewski describes as “creme de la creme,” showcases exactly what Colorado can do. “We took our best barrels, blended them together-that’s kind of our amazing red that showcases what we can do,” he explained. It’s confidence earned through years of proving that high-elevation vinifera deserves national attention.

Sauvage and Matysiewski’s partnership evolved organically through Colorado’s tight-knit wine community. For most of his career, Sauvage operated as a commercial grower, selling grapes to various wineries where Matysiewski worked as a winemaker. Their collaboration began with a practical problem: what to do with the grapes Sauvage was having trouble selling. He gave them to Matysiewski, who made a petillant naturel. That experiment sparked the inspiration for what would become their sparkling wine program when they officially launched Sauvage Spectrum in 2019.

Growing vinifera at Colorado elevations presents unique challenges and managing intense UV exposure requires strategic canopy management. Sauvage runs a Geneva double curtain system that blocks some of those solar rays from hitting the fruit directly. The goal is dappled sunlight rather than direct exposure-protecting the grapes while capturing the benefits of elevation: cooler nighttime temperatures that preserve acidity.

“Colorado’s just a different animal,” Sauvage says. “It just throws different things at you in different regions.”

Ask Sauvage about surprises in the vineyard, and he lights up discussing Zweigelt, the Austrian red that stumped even some industry veterans when Sauvage Spectrum submitted it for evaluation. “Analytically, it’s perfect. It’s crazy. The numbers come out great. It harvests early enough that you don’t have frost concerns,” Sauvage said. “It’s a good producer, but not an overproducer.”

The success with Zweigelt represents something larger happening at Sauvage Spectrum. “What’s really interesting about those varieties too-we also do Teroldego and Gruner Veltliner-those were kind of overcropped and bastardized and made into table wine,” Matysiewski explained. “What we’ve been able to do is to create really high end wine. It’s the top of the top for us, those single varieties, and they are not table wine.”

Because Colorado isn’t tied to any particular grape identity, Sauvage and Matysiewski have the freedom to experiment and educate, though their portfolio isn’t all obscure varieties. “Our Bordeaux varieties do great too,” Sauvage noted. “Malbec, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc-they really shine in Colorado too.”

Read more…