Carboy Winery in Littleton recently became the first Colorado winery to join a program that aims to protect the hearts and lives of wine lovers.

The program, “Trained for Saving Lives,” is run by a California winery called River Road Family Vineyards and Winery. When owner Ron Rubin suffered a cardiac emergency in 2009, a defibrillator saved his life. Now, it’s his mission to bring these lifesaving machines to wineries around the country.

The program provides free automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to U.S. wineries like Carboy.

“My biggest hope is … that we never have to use it — but we’re prepared to do so in the event that we need to be good Samaritans and help either someone out on our team or a guest,” said Kevin Webber, the chief executive operator of Carboy.

Some studies have shown that red wine, in small amounts, can promote heart health. Despite this connection, the goal of this program isn’t really about wine. It’s about people, as cardiac emergencies can happen anywhere.

Webber said he was inspired to participate after his colleague in Washington, on a vineyard where Carboy grows some of its grapes, suffered a mild heart attack. It made him realize the importance of having the tool in place.

Carboy has several locations: Littleton, Denver, Breckenridge and Palisade. Webber said the Littleton location was a good place to start because of its quantity of visitors.

“We see probably around 20,000 people a month at this location,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that are coming through here, a lot of people coming off the bike path … We see enough people that having one nearby, you know, you hope you never have to use it but the one time that you do, you’re glad you have it.”

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