Wines of Colorado

During the summer of 2016, Shawn and I decided to head to Colorado Springs instead of back to Albuquerque. [as we did the previous two summers] I procured an assignment up in Denver, at Denver Health Medical Center [this was quite a little commute, but luckily it was only 3 days a week] and we were on our way to new and uncharted territories. There are always a lot of fresh roads to drive and tons of exploring to do when you "move" to a new city. It didn't take us long to discover that Colorado was going to be an amazingly beautiful place to live for the summer!!

On our first roadtrip up to the summit of Pikes Peak, we drove by this eye catching building that was painted with colorful, vibrant wine bottles and grapes [pictured below] located in town of Cascade. [on US24 right before the turn off for Pikes Peak Highway!!] Even though the building itself looked like a liquor mart or package store, it was so pretty that I wanted to stop and take a closer look. Wow, I am so glad we did!! We couldn’t have been more wrong about what was inside and I was totally delighted that we decided to stop!!

After walking through a charming front patio seating area, we came into the main room. It was in fact, quite similar to a liquor mart. I mean off to the right, there were racks upon racks of local wines available for purchase. To the left, there was a pretty good sized “convenance-like store” section with everyday items for sale, along with a nice selection of local art, Colorado souvenirs, and wine themed collectables. 

Situated in the far back corner of the 'liquor mart" part of the main room there was a door where we saw that people were almost constantly streaming in and out of. My curious nature demanded that we go see what was going on. I was more than a little surprised by what we found. Check out this glorious looking little creek side patio!! [pictured below] Apparently, this magical little place was also a restaurant . [not that I could find a kitchen, a doorway to a kitchen or any other space that could possibly indicate there was a kitchen on premises]

We weren't presently looking for lunch, but I put this in my memory bank to revisit at a later date. What really drew my attention, when we walked back in from the creekside patio area, was what I saw on the backside [now the side facing me as we came in from the corner door] of the checkout counter.. a semi-miniature wooden bar [standing room only] with a slew of wine bottles littered across the top, and a sweet little sign that indicated there were free wine tastings here!!

So not only did this beautifully painted little “liquor mart” have a room full of Colorado wines to purchase, and an amazing creekside eatery… you could stand at the bar, point to whichever bottle[s] that you wanted to try and get a taste of your selection before you purchased it!! You could then take it home, or you could order a bottle to be delivered to your table to enjoy with your lunch!!

We did make it back another day for lunch... actually we made it back several other days, as well. Ok, here is a "Where's Waldo" moment... see if you can find Shawn in the above photo!? Hint.. he is sitting with a friend, Taylor Aldous. [also the then boyfriend of my girl Aimee from last weeks Su Vino Winery blog!!]

We enjoyed the food here, and it goes without saying that I really enjoyed the wine!! We quickly learned that this was the perfect place to go for a relaxing meal, as long as you weren't crunched for time as the service always seemed to be a little delayed. I can only assume it was due to the location of their "invisible" kitchen and its relationship to all of the outside dinning areas. [however, the food was delicious and always still seemed to be delivered hot]

I discovered that in 2021, Wines of Colorado was purchased by Dawn and Arin DeMay. The DeMay's had visited Colorado years before, and after stopping in at Wines of Colorado, they fell in love with the area. Six months later they moved to Cascade, right up the road from Wines of Colorado and they watched and waited for their opportunity. When they saw Wines of Colorado come up for sale, they couldn’t let the feeling that fate was dealing them their dream to pass them by. 

I am not sure if they still offer the fun “drive-by” wine tastings at that same standing room only bar, but after looking at the "improvement" photos on their new website, it appears that they have upgraded things. It appears as if they are a little more uptown now than they were when we use to frequent the place.

I am happy to report that they are still serving Roadkill Red. [one of my favorites during this time] Even though the new owners have made changes and modernized things, when they pledged “to carry on the tradition at this wonderful local landmark” they did not take that lightly. I would absolutely love to go back and see what they have done!!  

Anyone like to play games!? Wine with Wixy will still be in Colorado Springs next Wednesday and I’ll be playing my first game of WINE BINGO!!!

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!