Ryan Does Denver

This last week I had an opportunity to fly to Denver to work with our great distributor down there, Unity Selections. I was going to tour the area with some of the sales reps to meet with their best customers and get to learn the market. It is always a fun thing to do, and I was definitely looking forward to it. While planning this little jaunt, I called up an old friend of mine, Rob Plut, who lives in Denver, and ask him if I could stay with him for a few days and catch up. During this quick phone call I was shocked to discover that I would also be in town for one of the greatest events that happens in America every year: The Great American Beer Festival! But more on that later…

Colorado is an interesting state. To its east lies Kansas, north is Wyoming, and to the south is New Mexico. This gives a crossroads feel to the state, and people from all walks of life find themselves in its capital, Denver. On my first day I drove with one of their fantastic reps up to Fort Collins. The town is home to the great New Belgium Brewing, so I assumed that this would be a beer town only. But no, they love their wine there too! As it turns out, I was told that our wine is the best selling Malbec that Unity Selections carries, and Fort Collins is a major purchaser of them. How cool is that!

After a long day of work Rob and I went to his favorite beer and wine shop, Little Raven Vineyards. Being more of a beer man, Rob hadn’t spent too much time checking out their Argentinean wine selection, but upon closer inspection we discovered that they are doing a brisk business selling the Gozzo Malbec.

Now, after a couple more days of work, the big night was upon us, the Great American Beer Festival was happening. This was my first time going, so I think that a little explanation is in order. It is a three day festival that takes place annually at the Denver Convention Center. They always sell out (this year there were 49,000 ticket holders and volunteers), have around 500 breweries, and your ticket entitles you to a one ounce pour of any beer that you want during the four and a half hours each day that it is open. This year, there were about 2,100 beers being poured, so even though we did our best we only managed to sample a fraction of them! Needless to say, people fly in from all over the world for this event.

Although we are in the wine business, many of you will remember that beer is always close to my heart. I started brewing beer in the college dorms (hopefully my old R.A. isn’t reading this) and during my time in Europe I really developed an interest in the craft. It was thrilling to be around so many people that are so passionate about what they were doing. The brewers and their representatives have spent lifetimes making their dreams come true, and what they are doing with beer has come leaps and bounds from where it was just 20 years ago. Some of the standouts for me were the Dogfish Head Brewery, who make historic and boutique regional beers at their brewery in Delaware. For example, they created a beer, called “Midas Touch,” that uses molecular evidence from an ancient Turkish amphora to re-create a beer from antiquity. Another brewery that I loved is called Chama River Brewing, and they make a beer that has been aged for five months in used wine barrels, giving the beer a delicious wine aroma right off the bat.

The list of favorites, of course, goes on and on, but a final thought about the beer industry in America is how diverse and regional it is becoming. The styles available are unprecedented, and people are experimenting with all new kinds of ingredients (jalapenos, maple syrup, vanilla, etc.). And it is beautifully not homogenized, you can definitely tell a Pacific Northwest beer from a New England beer from a Southern beer (is that terroir?).

It was a really fun experience to fly down to Denver for a few days. People all over Colorado are loving our wines, and every year they put on the best beer festival in the country. I will definitely be making this an annual event.