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COVER STORY nearly 200 miles from where the Colorado River descends south through De Beque Canyon into the Grand Valley. The couple initially planted char- donnay, merlot and cabernet sau- vignon, and have since expanded BookCliff Vineyards to 37 acres supporting 12 varieties. Recent additions include tempranillo, gra- ciano, petite sirah and petit verdot. Garlich and Merz continued to make wine in their licensed base- ment until 2008, when they moved to leased space on Lee Hill Road in north Boulder. Production in 2011 was 4,200 cases; they keep 65% of their crop and sell the remainder to eight to 10 wineries, including Boul- der Creek Winery. The BookCliff tasting room was initially on Boulder's trendy Pearl Street, in a space shared with a wine bar. Garlich and Merz eventu- ally moved the tasting room to the winery, allowing visitors to see the winemaking process. They consid- ered building a winery at their vine- yard and even went through the planning stages. "But we wanted to live in Boulder," Garlich explained, "and we realized that we could work directly with sommeliers and wine buyers from our Boul- der base." There, they have direct and ongoing contact with chefs and sommeliers, and bottle special blends for sale at these outlets. "With our winery location on the Front Range, we're where the pub- lic shops, where we can talk to con- sumers, and we can sell our wines at a lower price-point," Garlich added. "At our scale, selling our wines at a relatively low price-point ($11-$24) allows us to compete with the liquor stores." Garlich and COLORADO AT A GLANCE Wineries: 105 Vineyard acres: 1,200 Principal varieties grown: cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, gewurztraminer, merlot, petite sirah, petit verdot, riesling, syrah AVAs: Grand Valley, West Elks Other growing areas: Cortez/Four Corners, Front Range, Cañon City 48 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT NOV - DEC 2012 John Garlich and Ulla Merz of BookCliff Vineyards transport grapes from their Grand Valley vineyard to their urban winery using refrigerated trucks. Merz are fixtures at the Boulder Farmers' Market, where are they are permitted to sell – although not pour samples – of their wines. BookCliff grapes are hand-picked into 4-foot by 4-foot macro bins, by crews that have just completed the peach harvest. The fruit is stored in a walk-in cooler, chilled to 40°F, then transported by refrigerated truck at night, so that it's at the Boulder winery early the next morn- ing. BookCliff has a full-time vine- yard manager, Prescott Bell, who keeps watch on Brix, pH and acid levels during the growing season, working with state viticulturist Dr. Horst Caspari, based at Colorado State University's Orchard Mesa Research Station in Grand Junction. Dr. Stephen Menke, the state enol- ogist, is also there. "I make a fair amount of trips between Boulder and the vineyard once veraison is complete," Gar- lich said. "It's important to pick on flavor." Boulder Creek Winery's Jackie and Mike Thompson purchase char- donnay and viognier from BookCliff, cabernet sauvignon from Canyon Wind Cellars and riesling from Whitewater Hills Vineyards, all in Grand Valley. She's the winemaker, he's the manager, and with their adult son, Will, they produce 2,000 cases of wine per year in an indus- trial park not far from BookCliff. The price range for their wines is $16-$36. "Our growers are excellent in working with us to get what we want," Jackie Thompson said. "In addition to discussing the style of wines we make, and the cor- responding parameters of grapes we want, starting at veraison, our growers give us weekly read- ings of Brix, pH, TA and in some cases seed color. If the grower is not equipped with testing equip- ment, we utilize the testing ser- vices offered by Caspari. When we WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM