I’m embracing a Colorado wine encore, cultivating grapevines, and crafting wine.
I’m sharing my wine encore journey from city life winemaking to country vineyard grower, hoping to inspire those with similar dreams or offer a vicarious escape for others.
Marshall's Wine Encore is Multi-Faceted
Marshall’s Wine Encore is geared toward wine-growing, winemaking, and the world of wine. While the content is written for casual wine enthusiasts, it delves into detail across multiple subjects.
For example, the site’s Vineyard and Winemaker pages detail growing wine grapes and winemaking. After the topic summaries and highlights, there is a series of curated topic blocks by subject matter experts who make it happen.
If you’d like to learn “with a side of humor” from my personal experiences, immerse yourself in my blogs, which cover rural valley living, planting and maintaining a vineyard, and my musings on current events in the world of wine.
You can also keep up-to-date on the Colorado wine scene, and news.
You Can Find Marshall's Wine Encore on Substack, Flipboard, and Next Avenue
I’m using Substack to write a book about my wine encore. To receive chapters when published, follow this link to sign up for a free subscription.
Find Flipboard Magazines created by Marshall’s Wine Encore covering wine news, growing, creating, and enjoying wine, and climate change in viticulture.
Next Avenue, a national publication geared to Life Encores, wrote an article featuring Marshall’s Wine Encore’s viticultural experiences.
A Day in the Life – Harvest 2026
From dawn to dusk, join me in the Pinot Noir grape harvest of 2026. From the first grape clipped to the last piece of equipment cleaned, 225 pounds of Pinot Noir are destined for a rosé. The vines have weathered a March heat dome, April freezes, pesticide drift, fungal spores, relentless pruning and spraying, birds, winged stinging insects, and hungry mammals.
My New Winemaking Assistant Doesn’t Drink Wine
Is AI making me a better winemaker—or just making me lazy? After nearly two decades of winemaking, I put ChatGPT to the test with my latest Pinot Noir rosé. The results have been interesting, occasionally surprising, and worth sharing. And no, I haven’t tossed my books—or my brain—onto the trash heap just yet!
Winter and Spring – 2026 Edition
“An exercise of extremes”, well encapsulates this past winter and spring in my vineyard and its location in Colorado’s North Fork Valley. The winter began innocently enough. While the vines quietly slumbered, December’s weather was reasonably normal. This was about to change, with record breaking results. You’ll find data to support this assertion, along with learning about new and surprising vineyard challenges.
Water is Everything
Many of us live privileged lives in which water is an afterthought. At times, we’ll dwell on it when reading about occurrences of water scarcity in different parts of the world, reflecting on the ongoing drought in the Southwestern U.S., or when turning on the tap for a cool glass of water on a hot summer day. For me, it’s scarcity that hits close to home, akin to a kick in the gut, when my water solar pump fails.
What Role Does Acid Have in Wine?
Acid plays an elemental role in wine. There are two types of acid: fixed and volatile. Fixed acids give a wine structure, texture, and zing, while volatile compounds are picked up aromatically. About the same time I came across a wine glossary beginning with the term acid, I was assessing two of my wines, asking the all-important question whether they required “tweaking” before bottling.
Is Drinking Wine Hazardous to Your Health?
“Young doctors nearly killed me, because in their phrasing, I use alcohol.” This is a quote from wine writer W. Blake Gray in the publication Wine-Searcher, titled “Alcohol Caught Between Science and Ideology.” In summary, the article recounts a harrowing eight-day hospital stay where Gray felt his life was endangered by the biases of younger medical professionals.
Wine With a Side of Yoga? How Western Slope Vineyards are Pivoting to Survive a Consumption Slump (Colorado Sun)
The fat, purple, just-picked grape clusters filling a bin on the loading dock at Sauvage Spectrum Estate Winery were full of juicy promise. They had just come from the vineyards, and they were headed to a crusher and fermentation tank.
Carpe Wine: And the Winners Are… (Vail Daily)
It was a big night for Colorado wine on Oct. 17 at Colorado Uncorked in Denver, where the 12 wines awarded the Colorado Governor’s Cup were finally unveiled. I had the privilege of serving as one of the judges back
Goodbye Napa Valley, So Long Sonoma County: This High Elevation Region Is A Mountain Hotspot For Wine (Islands)
When you think of a West Coast wine country getaway, your mind probably instantly goes to famous spots like Napa and Sonoma. But what about the Rocky Mountain region? Although it is known for its towering snowy peaks, the area
The Old West, reimagined: Discovering the queer spirit of Grand Junction, Colorado (GayCities)
When most travelers think of Colorado, the glittering peaks of Aspen or the urban sprawl of Denver often come to mind. But for those who venture west, past the Continental Divide and into the heart of the high desert, a
Why Don’t Denver Restaurants Serve more Colorado Wine? (Westword)
We’re in that time of year when Colorado restaurants celebrate some of the state’s most iconic crops. But Colorado wine? Not so much. Finding Colorado-produced wine at Denver restaurants is a far greater rarity, and the state’s wine industry has
Plan a Fall Trip Around Colorado to See Leaves and Sip Wine (Thirst CO)
When Colorado’s stunning landscapes are illuminated in shades of yellow, orange and red with the changing color of leaves, it’s hard to argue that there’s a better time of year in the state than fall. Especially if traveling to Colorado’s