In The Beginning

John Garlich and Ulla Merz discovered Palisade on one of their backpacking trips driving to Moab in the spring of 1994. Palisade is a picturesque, quaint farming town and back in 1994 peaches were the dominant crop.  In 1995 they found the perfect patch of land to plant grapes on, thus starting Bookcliff Vineyards. Those first 10 acres, filled with Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, were worked from the ground up, and to this day produce grapes that form the core of our wine portfolio.

The Vineyard

Bookcliff Farms manages 37 acres planted with 14 different varieties including Graciano (Spanish red) and Souzao (Portugese red), in addition to grapes you generally find in Bordeaux,France, the Rhone region of France and Germany.

The farms are committed to using sustainable farming practices. This means no use of any pesticide and as little use of herbicides as possible. We use compost to fertilize the soil instead of chemical fertilizer and we grow grass between the rows which keep the good and bad bugs in balance.

Colorado grapes express the character where they are grown – high altitude desert at 4,600 feet – and we are proud of making wine that captures this unique terroir in the glass.

It is important to us to grow our own grapes so we can control the quality from source to finished product. We are also proud that all our wines are made from 100% Colorado grown grapes.