Trail Ridge Winery to come to Fort Collins

  Fort Collins is well known for its craft beer brewers, but a winery moving into town soon hopes to make a name for itself among wine connoisseurs.

In June, the Trail Ridge Winery will relocate from Loveland to Fort Collins where it will establish a tasting room and small shop in the furniture store South by Southwest, 119 E. Lincoln. The old historic building across the tracks from Old Town is the original location for Odell Brewing Co.

Tim Merrick, wine maker and co-owner of Trail Ridge, sold his property in Loveland, at 4113 W. Eisenhower Blvd., where the winery is currently located, to Debbie Brown of Adobe Designs Boutique Home & Garden in August 2008.

Since that time, he has been renting a portion of the property back to operate the winery, but two weeks ago, he signed on with South by Southwest in Fort Collins to lease a few storage rooms and set up a tasting bar.

"Over the last 15 years, we have kind of put roots down here in Northern Colorado," Merrick said. "We developed a good local following."

Merrick said the 15-year-old winery, which grows its grapes along the Western Slope and produces its wine in Boulder, initially depended on tourist traffic in Loveland but has since developed a strong local base. Many liquor stores in Fort Collins carry Trail Ridge Winery's products.

"It's a natural fit that way, in that we already have a market in Fort Collins," Merrick said. "It's a nice synergy between a tasting room and accounts in the community."

Diane Lujan, owner of South by Southwest, said she is excited to have the synergy between her furniture store and the winery.

Lujan and Merrick met four years ago when she had a satellite store in Loveland down the road from the winery. At that time when Lujan closed her Loveland location, she considered consolidating her store with the winery.

Now she notes the irony that the tables have turned and Merrick is leasing space from her.

"We just think it would be a real interesting good fit because we have a real nice pottery yard. In the summer, that's a really nice thing to have for some wine tasting," Lujan said.

Merrick said he will lease about 500 square-feet of storage space and can fit from 10 to 15 people in the tasting area at a time.