In a state with a 150-year history of apple growing, there’s inevitably going to be 150 years of hard cider. But the good ol’ days? That’s right now. Colorado used to produce some of the best apples in the country, and southwest Colorado, in particular, was a powerhouse growing region. Today is the moment when Colorado’s cider is at its peak.

When Colorado voters were asked in 2022 to allow grocery stores to sell wine — lifting a 107-year restriction the industry repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to beat back legislatively for decades — proponents billed it as a win for consumers’ pocketbooks and the leveling of the playing field for alcohol sales statewide.

On the heels of Election Day 2022, Megan Bennett and Geno Anaya marked their signatures on a five-year lease for Wine and Spirits Boutique, at 10355 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., across from the King Soopers store in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood.

Colorado has long been praised for its thriving craft beer scene. There are currently over 400 breweries operating in Colorado. But how about a thriving wine scene? What are the 15 best wine bars in Denver?

Odell Brewing, which was founded in Fort Collins in 1989, has won plenty of beer awards over the decades, but on Friday, the company’s wine operation won a coveted award as well. The OBC Wine Project took home “Best in Show” for its Colorado Red blend during the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board’s tenth annual Colorado Uncorked event.

Innovation defines the sixteen years of the Infinite Monkey Theorem’s existence as a Colorado winery. Founder Ben Parsons bottled his first wines in 2008 and sold them from an old warehouse near West Fifth Avenue and Santa Fe Drive. The business would still have been a trailblazer even without those innovations.

Colorado may not be the first state you think of when you think about wine regions in the U.S. It might not have the name recognition of Napa, or Temecula, but the Centennial State was in fact once a respected winemaking area before Prohibition (when the vineyards were ripped out and replaced with orchards), and today it produces excellent, award-winning wines that are worth a taste.

Colorado may not have the reputation (yet) of California’s viticultural industry, but wine grapes have been grown in the Centennial State for more than a century. Prohibition essentially halted the state’s wine production but after a revival in the 1960s, wine now contributes more than $300 million to the economy. The Western Slope has become a legitimate tourist destination for wine lovers and Colorado’s picturesque vineyards consistently produce great fruit.

Colorado wine is climbing, rising in production and quality, and gaining national attention for doing what the state does best – pulling off elevated feats. Deeply drawn to this terrain, producers across the state join the broader industry’s conscientious drive to protect natural resources through land management.