Those who love wine but wish there were local wineries are in for a treat. The inaugural Durango Wine Walk will offer an opportunity to get acquainted with the four wineries not only in town, but right on Main Avenue.
“That’s what we’re kind of all going for,” said Tim Hassemer, owner of Durango Winery. “The fact that there’s four different wineries out here now, and nobody really knows about it, that is the goal – to bring more awareness to that.”
The four participating locations include EsoTerra Ciderworks, Four Leaves Winery, Durango Winery and Sutcliffe Vineyards in association with Visit Durango. The event has a set beginning time, EsoTerra advertises a launch party running from 5-7 p.m. Aug. 1 and while the live music and light snacks may not last, the event is open ended dependent on when participants get an opportunity to sample each location’s event specific discounts and specials.
- Esoterra, buy one get one half off on flights.
- Four Leaf, 15% off entire purchase, excluding artwork.
- Durango Winery, 15% off entire purchase.
- Sutcliffe Vineyards, 15% all bottles.
The concept for the walk is simple and approachable: Just walk into one of the participating locations ,purchase a commemorative Wine Walk glass for $10, and receive your map/passport. From there, participants can choose how to proceed. Based on their own time and tolerance, wine enthusiasts can choose to hit all four in one day or spread their journey out as far as they would like as long as they bring along their wine glass and present their passport for staff members to sign off on. The walk itself is pretty gentle as if participants sampled each location in a line, hitting all four locations would cover five blocks or 0.3 miles one way.
Born out of a continued lack of awareness from customers about the wine scene in Durango, EsoTerra co-founder Elizabeth Philbrick came up with the walking tour. She said she is excited to get the program going with EsoTerra’s recent investment in the Durango wine scene. The company perhaps best known for its apple cider, also has some variations of wine. And as Philbrick herself will tell you, cider is technically wine and the European style in which they make it definitely highlights the lineage cider hails from. Further exploration into this shared heredity has prompted EsoTerra to purchase 70 acres at the top of Florida mesa. The cider maker has in this past year alone planted 1,500 grapes and with its planned move of production from Dolores to La Plata County hope to become the first true Durango-based estate winery in recent memory.
Philbrick is also excited about the event and a possible future for Durango as a wine destination.
“It’s an opportunity for Durango to be known for more than just hiking, biking, fishing, swimming, you know, all the amazing outdoor things,” she said. “Not everyone wants to do the outdoor things. Sometimes someone’s like, ‘Well, you go rafting and I’ll spend the day at the wine walk.’”
If You Go
Durango Winery, 900 Main Ave., Suite B.
Four Leaves, 528 Main Ave.
Esoterra Ciderworks, 558 Main Ave.
Sutcliffe Vineyards Tasting Room (Durango), 120 W Eighth St.
