Alex Castillo-Llamas is always on the move.

He grew up as a migrant farm laborer, then helped open his family’s prestigious California winery. Now he is bringing that experience and work ethic to the hills above Hotchkiss, where he operates Fallen Mountain Wines with co-founders Michelle Fishering Castillo and Craig Kesselman. Assistant winemaker and shepherd Justin Homitz rounds out the core team.

We had a chance to tour the property on an ATV, taste their wines and hear their stories.

The winery produces limited quantities of wine for private tastings, available by appointment only. Fallen Mountain is perfecting the wine and gradually moving into wider distribution and into fine restaurants around the region and across the country. The team’s ultimate goal is boosting Colorado’s reputation in the wine world.

“We want to be pioneers in world-class wine production in the state of Colorado,” Alex said.

A classic success story

Alex had a long and difficult, if fortuitous, path to making top-shelf wine.

His family is from Mexico, and since the 1940s, they had been following the seasons as migrant farm workers up and down the west coast. By the time Alex was old enough to pick fruit, three generations of his family were in the labor troop.

A pear farmer gave them a rare five-day break. But Alex’s grandfather never took a day off. He scoped out opportunities in the Napa Valley, where most of the family ended up with full-time jobs in the burgeoning wine industry.

Alex lucked into positions with wineries and restaurants that ended up becoming some of the biggest names in the industry. He was busing tables for extra money when a co-worker invited him to help at another restaurant.

“He said ‘It’s the French Laundry,’ to which I replied, ‘what am I going to do at a laundromat?’” Alex laughed.

He quickly learned that the oddly named business is a restaurant with three Michelin stars that celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once called “the best restaurant in the world.” 

The job gave him a crash course in gastronomy and oenology.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s $2 a bottle or $2,000 a bottle. The world’s greatest wines evoke positive memories,” Alex said. “Once I was able to make that connection, all I wanted to do was become a winemaker.”

In 2009, he launched Llamas Family Wines (Llamas is his mother’s maiden name) with his uncle Oscar, which grew into an acclaimed and successful small winery focused on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay wines. 

Moving to Colorado

Meanwhile Alex met his future wife Michelle in Napa. She grew up in Montrose, and had moved to Napa to develop her knowledge and connections, with the goal of taking her skills to a lesser-known wine region.

She told Alex as much on their third date. 

“I told him ‘I have no desire and no plan to stay in Napa,’” Michelle said, noting that most of Alex’s family was in Napa. “‘So if that’s a non-negotiable for you, we should just have fun, but we should go in knowing that. And we can just have fun and not take this too seriously.’”

They took it very seriously. After Alex and Michelle were married, they traveled to several wine regions before she came back to western Colorado to visit a brother who moved back home. 

Her brother took them to Azura Cellars in Paonia, and they started to see the region’s potential. Then they saw the Hotchkiss property. Despite being half a continent from Alex’s family in California and Mexico, both Alex and Michelle said they felt Hotchkiss should be their home.

Craig was their next business partner, and he brought a depth of entrepreneurial and investment experience. Alex was initially skeptical they should work together, but Craig was adamant.

“I told him, ‘If you don’t pursue your passion to make a world-class wine, then I’d be pissed,’” Craig recalled. “‘I can’t do what you do, but I can do the business side of it.’”

Deep vineyard roots

The Fallen Mountain team brings about 60 years of Napa Valley winemaking experience to Hotchkiss. Michelle has a master’s degree in the chemistry of winemaking, and has worked in most aspects of the industry, as have Alex and his parents, who will help with the harvest and winemaking. 

Still, Alex and Michelle will start over and learn about Colorado’s soil, climate and fruit.

“The greatest disservice that I could do to this new project is to try to move forward with any knowledge that I have from the Napa Valley,” Alex said. “There are completely different growing conditions, and a completely different soil composition. … Ninety-nine percent of the wines that I produce here, I had never worked with these grapes prior.”

The winery’s name is an homage to that soil.

“Fallen Mountain is an ode to the old volcanoes in the region that have since fallen,” Alex said. “And that is what left the geological footprint of the soils that define where we grow our grapes. So when you look at all this volcanic rock, that’s Fallen Mountain right there.”

In addition to wine grapes, Fallen Mountain also will grow other produce as cover crops and to help round out charcuterie boards and, eventually, full gourmet meals at the winery.

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