Kingman Winery, Denver CO

My mom and I came to Denver this Memorial Day weekend to see Les Miserables and my friend Emily but had a lot of time to kill before our show so we hit Hammond's Candy for the tour and to stock up on old fashioned candies. While we were waiting for our tour, my mom came across a pamphlet for Colorado wineries and vineyards....and there were a few really close to Hammond's

Woohoo!!! 

We tried hitting one with a fancy name first but saw that they were having a fancy party so we went back to follow the wine signs that mom had spotted on the way. They led us to Kingman Winery which was a small store-front with a nicely decorated tasting area and a wall that separated it from the production area. We got to try all the wines that they offered:

Whites-

Chardonnay

Viognier

Riesling

Reds-

Cabernet Sauvignon

Marv'lous 1680

Zinfandel

They also had a special wine that was a bled of Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes (which I can't remember the name of) and it is their summer wine for 2013. It was an interesting bled of white and red that made for a lovely wine to drink on a hot summer day. They designed the label using a painting from one of their featured artists (they do a art night once a month where an artist comes in and teaches people how to recreate one of their paintings while drinking wine... I should do this some day).

They prided themselves on taking familiar wines and making them unfamiliar. They don't age their Chardonnay in oak barrels so it doesn't have the creamy and buttery taste that most Chardonnays have. They also process their Riesling differently so it's not as sweet as most Rieslings go. As for the reds, they only age their Cabernet Sauvignon for about 8 months before bottling when it normally ages for a year. This gives it a strong beginning but a more mellow end than most Cabs.

When we were done with our tastings, we were offered a tour of their operations... Which was very small compared to what I had seen at other wineries. They get all of their grapes from a valley in another part of Colorado and process them all in the small space behind the tasting room.

My favorite of their offerings was their Chardonnay, which is strange since I don't usually favor them. I was not a fan of the Riesling and did not mind the Cab, two even stranger things. 

Kingman was an interesting little find and was glad we visited.

"Your adaptive unconcious is crying out to taste our wine."