A WINERY
Patrick Zimmerer
WLM
| taste
Looks At Ten
Jimmy Buffet penned and sang “A Pirate Looks at Forty”
reflecting days of old and times past. While our winery is
nowhere near forty or a pirate, that theme and song kept
coming to my mind as the winery celebrates a decade
this fall. So this is my take – “A Winery Looks at Ten.”
W
hile our original 300 “old
vines” were planted in 2001,
it wasn’t until 2004 where
the grapes began to produce fruit and
Table Mountain Vineyards became a
winery in a small converted farmhouse
on the Zimmerer family farm. The
farm was established in 1926 and is
four generations strong originally
producing beef, sheep and growing
crops. Grapes were probably never on
the minds of generations before, but
now the vineyards on the farm span
over 10 acres and are roughly 10,000
vines in total. It took over four years
for each planting to get acquainted with
life in Wyoming, living and surviving
in a challenging growing environment.
When the grapes finally took root, the
winery went from processing a few
hundred pounds in 2004 to 30-40 tons
annually of all Wyoming grown grapes
and fruits. We’ve picked fruit at apple
orchards, raspberry farms, and even
pretended to help retrieve honey from
the hive all in the name of Wyoming
wine.
While the winery is still small scale on
every level, we’ve grown by leaps and
bounds at every stage of the game.
Every upgrade in equipment, efficiency
and production methods are welcome
sights as we have learned to deal with
the unique varietals that can grow here
and the wine making challenges that
cold climate grapes can present. Every
vintage has been unique and truly one
for the books: a June frost ‘09, dual
hail storms in ‘11, too much rain in’14,
drought ’04-‘10, and a harvest snow in
’09 to name a few. You can hear these
stories as the wine whispers it vintage
to vintage telling its story from vine to
wine.
Our Wyo Wine-O’s too have worked
tirelessly spreading the word of our
story and wines across the state and
beyond at tastings and events large,
small and bizarre (pouring wine at a
national goat show comes to mind). We
have many tall tales from the road, have
met many great folks and still continue
to promote our love of Wyoming
agriculture in everything we do. It’s
hard to believe 10 years can go by so
fast, but at least we have the wines to
tell our story and some great stories
to prove that growing and making
Wyoming wine is a reality and will be
for many more vintages to come.
Visit WyoWine.com/blog to read more
stories, tales and 10 years of pictures as well
as celebrate our anniversary!
www.wyolifestyle.com
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