Winery plans move to Fort Collins

LOVELAND - After more than 14 years in Loveland, Trail Ridge Winery will move to Fort Collins this June.

Trail Ridge co-owner Tim Merrick said he and four partners will move to 119 E. Lincoln Ave. near Old Town, in an old feed-and-grain building next door to the folk art and furnishings retailer South by Southwest.

The winery will leave its nine-acre plot on U.S. Highway 34 in west Loveland, acreage that the partners had on the market for two and a half years before selling it in August to Debbie Brown. Merrick plans to lease space temporarily from Brown, who has moved her retail clothing and home furnishings business Adobe Designs to the Loveland building from Fort Collins.

"We won't have a need for the old location once we move," Merrick said.

That location had a display vineyard, along with a tasting room and production facility. The new location has a pottery garden with space for incorporating a wine garden, Merrick said.

Trail Ridge makes its wine from grapes grown on the Western Slope and now produces 3,000 cases of wine a year, six times what it produced during its first year of business.

The wine is distributed primarily to liquor stores in Northern Colorado, metro Denver and Boulder.