Grand Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Colorado in the mountainous western spine of the United States. The AVA covers 32,000 acres (12,950ha) within Mesa County on the western border of the state. The dry, high-altitude terroir here lends itself to the production of bright, fruit-driven wines made from Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
The Grand Valley AVA follows the path of the Colorado River (once known as the Grand River) from the narrow DeBeque Canyon in the west to its confluence with the Gunnison River just west of the city of Grand Junction, a distance of around 12 miles (18km). The area – which is within a larger, more agriculturally-dominated valley – is surrounded by mountains on all sides, most of them a part of the sizable Rocky Mountain range that runs through Colorado, Idaho, Montana and into Canada.
© Wikimedia/Donna Boley
Grand Valley's vineyards produce more than three-quarters of the wine made in Colorado. The region was home to the state's first vineyard plantings near the town of Palisade in 1890. European settlers who had come to the region to work in the various mines brought viticultural traditions from their homelands, planting extensive vineyards in the valley. In 1916, Colorado banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol – four years before the nationwide Prohibition – and many of Grand Valley's vines were ripped out in favor of peaches, now one of the state's most important fruit crops. Viticulture returned to the valley in the 1970s, providing the basis for today's thriving wine industry.
The Grand Valley AVA has some of the highest vineyards in the world. Located at altitudes between 4000ft and 4500ft (1200–1400m) above sea level, the wine sites here rival those of Mendoza in Argentina. At this height, they benefit from intense sunlight during the day, followed by much colder nights. This slows ripening overnight, promoting the development of complex phenols along with acidity. While the Grand Valley AVA has a similar heat summation during the growing season as Napa Valley (as measured by the complex Amerine-Winkler climate scale), it is over a shorter period. This means that earlier-ripening grape varieties such as Merlot and Syrah do better here than the later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon.
The sandy, rocky soils in the area drain rapidly, and irrigation is used sparingly throughout the AVA to control yield and vigor in the vines. The dry climate in Grand Valley means that there is little risk of the fungal vine diseases that threaten vineyards in the AVAs on the east coast of the country.
The Grand Valley AVA was established in 1991 by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. It should not be confused with the similarly named Grand River Valley AVA in Ohio, established in 1983.
