Hotchkiss Winery Claims Top Honor at Colorado Governor's Cup

Aspen —The Storm Cellar’s 2024 Reserve Riesling is the best wine in Colorado.

That’s not a puff piece. It’s the verdict from the judges at the 2025 Colorado Governor’s Cup, unveiled Oct. 17 in Denver. The winery, based in Hotchkiss, took home the top honor for Best of Show and Best White Wine. They also snagged Best Rosé with their 2025 Rosé of Chambourcin. Five gold medals total for a small operation in the West Elk AVA.

Elaine Schoch, an award-winning travel writer and WSET Level 3 certified judge, sat on the panel in September. She wrote for the Vail Daily that she’d been sitting on the results ever since. Keeping quiet is harder than it sounds, she noted.

Schoch admitted the Rosé of Chambourcin stopped her in her tracks. She’s usually not a fan of the hybrid grape, which is known for searing acidity and a profile that leans heavily on grapefruit and red fruit. But as a rosé? She called it "wow."

That reaction highlights a gap in local knowledge. Schoch reported that Steve Steese and Jayme Henderson, the husband-and-wife team behind The Storm Cellar, hear it all the time. People are still surprised that Colorado makes wine at all. Even those who know Palisade often don’t realize it’s part of the Grand Valley AVA, the state’s largest wine region. Fewer still know about the West Elk AVA, where The Storm Cellar sits.

The region was recently named the number two wine area in the U.S. by USA Today’s 10BEST ranking, voted on by readers and a panel of experts. That puts Hotchkiss, a town with a population under 3,000, in the national conversation.

Steese and Henderson aren’t new to this podium. Their wines have collected medals at the Jefferson Cup Invitational, the San Francisco International Wine Competition, and the American Fine Wine Competition. They walked away from restaurant floors in Denver to make their own wine. It has the makings of a fairy tale: a leap of faith, a little farm, and a dream finally coming true.

But Schoch pushed back on the "Cinderella story" label. She asked them how the story actually goes, implying the reality is grittier than the myth.

The rest of the Governor’s Cup list is dominated by the Grand Valley AVA, centered in Palisade.

Bookcliff Vineyards took Best Red Wine for its 2025 Mourvèdre. Carboy Winery, also in the Grand Valley, racked up four medals for its 2023 Cabernet Franc, two vintages of Teroldego (including an estate-grown version), a 2024 Albariño, and a 2024 Zweigelt. Carlson Vineyards earned a medal for its 2024 Endure, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Blaufränkish.

The Storm Cellar’s other medals included a 2025 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2024 Cloudburst sparkling Riesling.

The Grand Valley AVA is the workhorse of Colorado wine, producing the bulk of the state’s volume. The West Elk AVA is smaller, cooler, and less known to the average consumer. Yet its top performer just beat out every other bottle in the state for the single highest honor.

That’s a shift worth watching. The narrative of Colorado wine has long been tied to the heat and volume of the Grand Valley. Now, a winery in Hotchkiss is setting the standard for quality at the state level.

Schoch’s piece ends on a note of skepticism about the "fairy tale" narrative. She wants to know how the story really goes, beyond the medals and the podiums.

For now, the fact is simple: The best wine in Colorado comes from a small winery in Hotchkiss. If you’re drinking local, that’s the bottle to seek out.