The North Fork Valley Closes November 1. Here's the Window.
Paonia and Hotchkiss hold Colorado's organic farming heart and the West Elks AVA. Almost every tasting room shuts for the season on the same date.
– 3 min read
The North Fork Valley — Paonia, Hotchkiss, Crawford — is high-altitude orchard and vineyard country and the center of Colorado's organic agriculture movement. It is also on a hard clock. Read down the tasting room hours below and you will notice nearly every one of them ends on or about November 1.
What the valley is
This is the West Elks AVA, a separate appellation from Palisade's Grand Valley AVA and a genuinely different growing region: higher, cooler, smaller, and dominated by small diversified farms rather than by scale. If you have done Palisade and assumed you have done Colorado wine, you have not.
Paonia
- Big B's Delicious Orchards and Hard Cider, 39126 Hwy 133. Daily from 10am, April through November. Cafe, live music, fruit picking, camping on site.
- Black Bridge Winery and Orchard Valley Farms, 15836 Black Bridge Rd. Daily 10am to 6pm through November 1. Wine tasting plus u-pick fruit and vegetables and a pumpkin patch — the best single stop if you have children along.
- Stone Cottage Cellars, 41716 Reds Rd. Daily 11am to 6pm through November 1. Charcuterie, and vineyard stays.
- Azura Cellars, 16764 Farmers Mine Rd. 11am to 6pm daily except Tuesday, through November 1. Flights and charcuterie.
- Qutori Wines, 40823 Hwy 133. Daily noon to 6pm through November 1.
- 5680 Vineyards, 14652 Peony Ln. Friday through Sunday, noon to 6pm, through November 1.
- Alfred Eames Tasting Room at Zenzen Gardens, 12498 3790 Rd. Daily noon to 6pm. Live music, lodging, farm-to-table dinners.
- Alfred Eames Cellars, 11931 4050 Rd. Events and major holidays; otherwise by appointment.
- Clear Fork Cider, 234 Grand Ave, inside Paonia Books. Saturdays 2 to 5pm through October 31. A cidery inside a bookshop is worth the detour on its own.
- Also here: Painted Vineyard Winery and Peony Lane Winery.
Hotchkiss
- The Storm Cellar, 14139 Rummel Gulch Rd. Thursday through Sunday, noon to 7pm, through November 1.
- Mesa Winds Farm and Winery, 31262 L Rd. Farm-to-table food, tasting, full bar, open seasonally.
- Fallen Mountain Winery, 29847 Stingley Gulch Rd. By appointment only.
- Bramble Winery, on 3260 Rd, working with overlooked fruits into dry wines.
How to plan it
Two things follow from those hours. First, call ahead anyway — a small family winery closes for a harvest day or a family event without updating anything. Second, build the day around the ones with fixed narrow windows. Clear Fork Cider is Saturday afternoons only. The Storm Cellar is Thursday to Sunday. 5680 is Friday to Sunday. Azura is closed Tuesdays. A Monday or Tuesday visit will find most of the valley shut.
Regional contact for the AVA is westelksava@gmail.com or 970-527-3444.
Combining it with the mesa
The North Fork sits at the southern foot of the Grand Mesa, which makes an obvious two-part trip: the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway down Highway 65 from I-70, sixty-three miles and about two hours of driving, coming out at Cedaredge, then into the valley. Note the Grand Mesa Visitor Center closes for the season on the last Sunday in September, and services between Cedaredge and Mesa are limited, so fuel up.
Cedaredge and the Surface Creek area on that south flank are apple country, which rounds out the agricultural picture nicely.
One more reason to be here after dark
Paonia is a certified International Dark Sky Community. So is Ridgway, an hour south. If you are already staying the night for the tasting rooms, the sky is the second reason.
Before you go, read the Trellis guides to what's closed Monday and Tuesday, where to see stars and heat, altitude and the seasons. All of the visitor guides are collected at Visit the Western Slope.
