Wine & Drinks
Surface Creek Winery in Delta County, Colorado
Located in the premier fruit-growing area of Delta County, Colorado, Surface Creek Winery is positioned below the southern rim of the Grand Mesa in Eckert.
This location provides important irrigation and domestic water in a high-desert area.
Winery owners Jim and Jeanne Durr handcraft their wines from local Colorado-grown grapes and fruit.
A former wildlife biologist and environmental natural resources attorney, Jim admits that happenstance led to the founding of Surface Creek Winery in 1999.
"I started brewing my own beer, but then I fell in with the wrong crowd and ended up starting a winery," Durr says with a laugh. His wife, Jeanne, runs the tasting room/art gallery. "Our gallery has taken to representing local artists and is more of a fine-art gallery rather than a gift shop," Durr says.
The Gallery at Surface Creek Winery features paintings by watercolorist Dale Russell Smith and work by a number of other Colo-rado artists.
After perusing the paintings, step up to the tasting-room bar and try one of the winery's current offerings, including the ever-popular fruit-flavored Colorado cherry wine or the crisp 2006 Colorado Wildflower White (a dry gewürztraminer).
The newly released 2006 Colorado syrah (around $18) is soft in the sip with gamey el-ements of tobacco and leather surrounded by a very forward expression of fruit.
"Serve the syrah with rich Italian dishes and substantial meat dishes," Durr says.
— Darryl Beeson
• Info: www.surfacecreek.com, 970-835-9463
Issue: July 2009
