Aquila: The Tiny Winery That's Trying Mightily to Get to Could
Hey Aspen wine lovers! I know how much you love those Screaming Eagles and the La Pins and the To-Kalons. But almost in your backyard are wines from an Eckert producer, located in the North Fork Valley, that you’ve gotta take a sip or two of, if you really love wine. I assure you, the adventurous side of you, the bold aspect of your being, will emerge ever more fruitful.
The winery is called Aquila. It's farming and winemaking are as old-world as they come. Which means that the wines that emerge from its vineyards – some of the highest elevations from a mile up to more than 6,500 feet – will make you soar with the eagles. Which is what Aquila translated, means.
So, what’s so special in those bottles of Pinot Noir (only 11.8 alcohol!), a Syrah/Cab Franc blend, Malbec, Pinot Gris, Riesling (a bone-dry orange wine), and Gewurztraminer. In all, Aquila (A Key La) makes only about 1,500 cases a year (the scarcity, oh the scarcity)?
It uses organic and biodynamic practices in its 4 ½-acre vineyard that’s now 15 years old – the advent of its maturity. In its rustic, hillside cellar, the juice flows only with gravity, never with a machine. Aquila uses 100% native yeasts. The wines are not fined or filtered. The aim for farmer and winemaker Brandt Thibodeaux (the former title is his preference rather some highfalutin wine geek term) is to put the focus on the potential of Colorado vineyards.
And here’s the juicy part (pun intended) Aquila employs a traditional basket press – that Thibodeaux believes is about 90 years old – into which the grapes are hand-cranked(!), rather than put through crushing (literally) trauma. Oh, and did I mention that at Aquila they foottread the grapes, too? Yeah, you can’t get any more beautifully old-world than that.
That press BTW, was originally used by Clement Fougnier, who built a wine cellar in the North Fork in 1927 and planted grapes in the ‘30s. Fougnier was selling his Gewurztraminer to those who were then known as “Aspen socialites”.
Which leads Thibodeaux to exclaim with all sincerity and ardor, and not a hint of woo wooishness: “In the end, it’s only juice and wine but if you understand it, you know it to be magic.”
He concludes though with this: “You put a smile on your face and hump the bag down the cobbled streets of the ‘Emerald City’ trying to get past the gatekeepers and into the palace of acceptance; one-thousand years of history, and 50 years of biases standing in the way.”
He readily admits it’s been a struggle breaking through to those “gatekeepers”. Read that as Aspen’s sommeliers, who he says, “buy my wines for themselves but don’t put the wines on their lists."
“But you keep visiting them even if it’s once a year and putting it in front of them. Part of our struggle is that we don’t have pedigree. I came from a farming background, and they want to see you come from someone that gives you that check of approval (see: Screaming Eagle). Without that, it’s difficult.”
One somm who has an Aquila wine - 2020 Monarch Red Blend (Syrah/Cab Franc) $74, is the Parc Aspen wine sentinel Jonathan Pullis who says simply of Aquila, “Yes, it is on our list and I have enjoyed it. It’s a natural winemaking style, and it’s clean and very enjoyable."
"I wouldn't have kept this going without Courtney Gayer, a founding partner and assistant winemaker; and couldn’t have kept this going without a strategic partnership. Although I started this, Courtney and our other partner Kade Gianinetti, were essential to getting us this point. We are a team!"
One of the somms at The Little Nell, Rachael Liggett-Draper, has told me about the new and innovative Colorado wineries, such as Aquila.
"Aquila is the epitome of that new, youthful style of winemaking. It is environmentally friendly, employs low intervention and is energetic. A lot of these new Colorado wineries embody that hip, thoughtful, and modern ethos that are popular in chic wine bars, and these guys are no exception."
Aquila wines can also be found locally at Grape & Grain, Little Nell, Hotel Jerome, Ellina, Gant Hotel, Daily Bottle (Snowmass), Tiny Pine Bistro (Carbondale), and Sopris Liquor (Carbondale).
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An update: As I reported a couple of weeks ago, the Parc Aspen restaurant held what it called The Tasting at Aspen, a takeoff of the signal 1976 Tasting at Paris, in which California wines trounced the French, thereby putting Cali wines on the global wine map. Here then are the wines involved in the Aspen tasting and the results, such as they were:
The wines:
2020 Domaine Anne Bavrard-Brooks Puligny-Montrachet vs 2020 Kongsgaard Chardonnay
2018 David Duband Gevrey-Chambertin vs 2017 Mount Eden Pinot Noir
2010 Château Durfort-Vivens Margaux vs 2010 Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon
The denouement according to Parc’s Jonathan Pullis:
“The group was divided evenly for the blind tasting. Most were stunned with their own votes and which they preferred. It was an even split down the middle each time!”
To which I emailed my reaction to Parc’s director of marketing, Camille Carlin: “Wow. A political stalemate!”
To which she replied: “I know! Quel dommage!”
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.