Ajax Cellars of Aspen is Making Colorado Wines
It’s a given isn’t it, when looking for a home in Aspen that there’s snow and more snow, skiing and more skiing? But did you know you can take a gondola three-quarters of the way to the stars, hike surrounding trails and when you’re plumb tuckered out, warm those bones and sate that hunger with an untold number of world-class restaurants?
Are you also aware that wine is on the Aspen and Roaring Fork Valley menu, too? Consider the Aspen Food & Wine Classic every June and Snowmass Wine Festival in September, when it’s also Colorado Wine Week. Two hours away, sits two of Colorado’s top Wine Countries. Colorado has about 130 wineries and a half-dozen less than 90 miles from Aspen.
There’s even a wine brand that calls Aspen home. Ajax Cellars and its intrepid founder and winemaker, Greg Van Wagner, are making wine from grapes grown in Colorado.
Wagner was the opening sommelier at Aspen’s Parc Aspen restaurant. He became a true Colorado wine fan when he attended a tasting in 2020 at the now-closed Jimmy’s restaurant. The wines were from Joe Buckel’s eponymous winery in Gunnison.
Van Wagner was so taken by Buckel that he decided to start making wine from Buckel’s vineyard; and where he makes the Ajax wine. It struck Van Wagner that, “We should be drinking more Colorado wine that comes from our backyard.”
Ajax uses Riesling and Syrah from Buckel’s Russel vineyard. It’s bone dry and comes from the highest elevation vineyard in Colorado, at 6,550 feet. The Syrah is from a single vineyard in Palisade.
“Colorado wine is definitely coming into its own,” Van Wagner believes. “A lot has to do with the winemakers leading this push for fresher, brighter European-style wines, who are finding conditions in Colorado are providing food friendly wines. Colorado has upped its winemaking game. The quality is showing off what Colorado can do. It’s a small, but burgeoning scene. …”
Clara Klein, the somm at Denver’s Tavernetta restaurant, and who is a judge at Colorado’s Governor’s Cup wine competition, knows a thing or two about Colorado wine.
“Seeing how Colorado wine has evolved, it’s pretty wild to see,” she says. “Over the last 7-8 years, I’ve seen Colorado go from farmers who dabbled in making wine – extra-curricular fun winemaking – to folks who are really dedicated and know how to make wine. They’re figuring out what to grow where and adjusting to a cool climate ….”
Klein believes Cabernet Franc, Riesling, Syrah in certain places do best. “It’s just cool to see. It truly is the wild, wild west. … It’s an enjoyable, free- spirited time; and they’re having a ball out there.”
In the meantime, it will be most rewarding to Aspenites to support their local wines, especially from Ajax. Van Wagner’s can be found at wine shops such as Grape & Grain, Carl's and Aspen Wine & Spirits. Restaurants that have Ajax’s wine on its lists are Cache Cache, Angelo’s, Acquolina, Aosta French Alpine Bistro, Hotel Jerome, and Matsuhisa.
Alan Goldfarb is a longtime wine journalist. His work has appeared in the Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Alta Journal among many others; and he’s interviewed Robert Mondavi. Francis Ford Coppola, Joan Baez, Daniel Ellsberg and Rupert Murdoch among hundreds of others.