There are few better ways to spend a summer day than walking a vineyard and tasting wines. You might think you need to book a flight to California or Oregon to do so, but right here in Colorado is a gem of a wine town chock full of wineries, tasting rooms, and fine restaurants.

Palisade is in the Grand Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA), just east of Grand Junction on I-70, a two-hour drive along the Colorado River from Aspen’s Main Street. While other regions and wineries in the state are worth a visit (especially Sutcliffe Vineyards in the Four Corners region and, near Hotchkiss, The Storm Cellar and Jack Rabbit Hill), no other area of Colorado has the collection of quality producers found in and around Palisade. Each summer, wine lovers and fun seekers converge there to taste the wines and admire the views of the surrounding mesas and mountains.

There is a fast-growing wine scene in Palisade where young producers are making wines from non-traditional grape varieties that have been planted with the hope that they may be well-suited for the region. International grapes like Chambourcin — a relatively-new French/American hybrid grape that makes delicious, fruity red wines — and the Northern Italian red grape Teroldego from the mountains of Trentino in Italy along with the Austrian Grüner Veltliner are all being planted. And several other hybrid varieties are being experimented with, as well.

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