But the biggest challenge to the Arkansas River Valley's "grape expectations" can be summed up in one word: weather.

"The differences in growing conditions between the Arkansas Valley and the Western Slope all relate to climate and nothing else," says Dr. Horst Caspari, Colorado State Viticulturist and an associate professor at Colorado State University.

Grapes need lots of sunshine to ripen to maturity and to build natural sugars. They also need cool evenings and nights to help retain the acids essential to premium wine-making. Grape-growing "microclimates"--a combination of soil conditions along with such factors as altitude, slope angle, drainage, and orientation toward the sun--are so crucial to wine grape development that vines grown in essentially the same location, but at slightly higher or lower elevations or with minor changes in soil composition, can vary significantly in quality. What wine grapes definitely don't need--or like--are rapidly changing temperatures, a hallmark of weather conditions on Colorado's Front Range.

"Extreme fluctuating temperatures are typical for the Front Range. We don't have such fluctuations on the Western Slope," Caspari explains from his office at CSU's Orchard Mesa Research Center near Grand Junction. "East of the Rockies, cold air masses come down the eastern side of the mountains. Being on the Western Slope protects us from that."

"The weather is more consistent in the Grand Valley," Caskey agrees. "On the Front Range, you can have warm weather one day and a freeze the next. The grapevines say, 'Oh, OK. It's spring,' and begin producing--and then it snows."

While that makes grape cultivation in the Arkansas Valley "a more risky business," says Caspari, "it can be done."

Both Caskey and Caspari see site and variety selection as keys to successful Arkansas Valley grape production.

"Site selection is crucial, so you have to be more site-specific," says Caspari. That means planting on slopes less prone to temperature fluctuations, as opposed to low-lying areas where cold air settles.

And both lean toward planting hybrids--a cross of two grape varieties--as opposed to vinifera grapes. Of European origin, Vitis vinifera is the chief source of Old World wine grapes, the most famous of which include red grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, and pinot noir, and white grapes like Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Sémillon.

Hybrids, which are more winter hardy than vinifera grapes, include such lesser-known French-American varieties as Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, and Chancellor.

But, cautions Caspari, growers need to plant what will sell, "and most Colorado wineries prefer vinifera grapes." So while planting hybrids might make sense viticulturally and climatologically, such an effort could be doomed without a viable market.

"The Midwest has embraced hybrids," notes Caskey. "In Colorado, because we can grow vinifera, we do. Fortunately, we've been successful with it. (That's especially true of Merlot and Chardonnay, Colorado's most widely planted vinifera grapes.)

"We don't yet know what will work in the Arkansas Valley," Caskey continues. "But to pursue the industry there, [growers] may have to go to hybrids."

The Road Ahead

While hybrids sound better in theory, the people actually doing the planting and wine-making in the Arkansas Valley are putting their hopes in vinifera grapes because "they make better wines," La Perrieré says simply.

"We're going to take a chance with vinifera grapes, which are more difficult to grow, because the market for vinifera is there. . . . Hybrids are hardier, but the quality of the wines they make is not what [the general public] prefers."

 La Perrieré should know. In a career spanning more than forty years, this veteran wine industry professional has worked in virtually every aspect of the business, from pruning vines and picking grapes to serving as district manager for several of the world's largest wine producers.

As a consultant to the Colorado Department of Corrections' (CDOC) grape cultivation project, La Perrieré has overseen the planting of seven acres of Chardonnay in 2001 and another 18 acres of Riesling, Merlot, and some Cabernet Sauvignon in 2002. The vines--which normally take three to five years to bear fruit suitable for wine--are being grown at 5,600 feet in elevation at the CDOC's East Cañon Complex.

When the first of these grapes are harvested in fall, 2005, they will be marketed under the Colorado Correctional Industries' "Juniper Valley Products" logo. A separate division within the CDOC, Colorado Correctional Industries supervises a number of agricultural and other job-training programs designed to provide prison inmates with marketable skills.

"We're strictly involved in the production of the grapes," explains agribusiness sector manager Steve Smith, "and we're infants at it at this stage. We have to see where this leads."

While the amount of acreage that would ultimately be devoted to vineyards is still undecided, one thing is certain: A market already exists in the form of Colorado's own wineries, which would be invited to bid on contracts to purchase the grapes.

But figuring out which vinifera varieties will be best-suited to conditions in the Arkansas River Valley will take time, La Perrieré notes.

For instance, Chardonnay and Riesling flourish at La Perrieré's own 7,000-foot-elevation Locke Mountain Vineyards southwest of Florence, where for the past six years he has cultivated grapes that are made into wine for personal use. But his attempts to grow Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir there have not succeeded.

La Perrieré, who at age 85 still single-handedly works his 10-acre vineyard (That's what drinking wine does for you!'), originally planted his vines almost on a dare after several California winemaker friends and colleagues attending his retirement party lamented the "impossibility" of growing vinifera' grapes at his high-altitude Colorado homestead.

"They threw down the gauntlet, and I picked it up," he jokes. And since he has been successful, La Perrieré feels it should be possible, and commercially viable, to grow vinifera grapes elsewhere in the Arkansas River Valley.

"But," he adds, "we need to see, by trial and error, which grapes will work best."

Another firm believer in vinifera grapes is winemaker Matt Cookson of The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey. And his reasoning echoes La Perrieré's: "Vinifera grapes make better wines than hybrids."

Cookson is keeping an open mind regarding exactly which viniferas will prove most successful. With 1 acre of the Abbey's 200-acre grounds planted with Chardonnay last year and a second acre of Riesling planted in 2002, the Abbey;s first harvest of Chardonnay in fall, 2005, will certainly give Cookson a good idea of the winery;s future direction. "If we can make Chardonnay work here, that will tell us a lot. Actually, if we can make Chardonnay work, we can make anything work."

Cookson will attempt to boost the Chardonnay's winter hardiness by using special growing techniques such as "double-trunking," which can preserve vines in the event of a frost, and by delaying pruning.

And he'll keep a close eye on the Riesling, which is his--and Caspari's--preferred vinifera for the Arkansas River Valley. In addition to its winter hardiness, Riesling, a grape native to Germany, does well in relatively cool districts, retaining acidity as it ripens. (One problem common to Colorado-grown wine grapes is low acid levels, due to the Western Slope's warm nighttime temperatures.) And Riesling can be made in styles ranging from light, delicate, and flowery to dry and steely to rich, honeyed, and highly concentrated.

Cookson has planted an additional "handful" of Riesling vines on an experimental basis at the Abbey-owned Trinity Ranch property near Wetmore. But at 6,600 feet in elevation, 1,000 feet higher than the Abbey vineyard, this apple-producing area is an unknown in terms of wine grapes. Cookson will carefully chart temperature and weather data before considering further planting there.

And Cookson is also experimenting with Vitis labrusca, one of the principal grape species native to North America. He has already planted a dozen or so vines of Concord and Norton, the latter an American cross, at the Abbey, and is planning to obtain additional cuttings from Concord vines growing wild in nearby Grape Creek Canyon. Judging from the number of Cañon City back yards planted with Concord grapes--a legacy of early coal-mining settlers, many of whom were home vintners of Italian heritage--the local climate and soil obviously suit this best-known and most widely planted --labrusca.

In the meantime, The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey, which anticipates its first crush of Colorado-grown grapes in fall, 2003, has begun selling Chardonnay, Riesling, and Merlot wines, along with a sweet Concord wine, and a white Zinfandel made from California grapes, all finished with Cookson's distinctive style.

And Cookson reiterates La Perrieré's sentiments when he says that determining the grape-growing future of the Arkansas Valley will take time. "We have to plant, experiment, and then just wait and see how things play out."

 NEXT: Learning from the Masters

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