This month, I took a field trip a little closer to home. I met up with a friend at BookCliff Vineyards’ tasting room in Boulder to taste their 2023 Graciano. Graciano is a black Spanish grape known for its vibrancy, touch of acidity, and medium tannins.
Why Graciano? Read on to find out.
The book of the month is the Christy Award-winning All That Is Secret, the debut novel from Patricia Raybon, a Colorado native who writes in the Christian Fiction genre. Now I’m a known agnostic/pagan/universalist, but I don’t let a little theology get in the way of a good story. And this was a good one.
Read it now on Hoopla
Raybon brings her main character, Professor of Theology Annalee Spain (get it, Spain, Spanish wines), back to Denver from Chicago to investigate the cold case murder of her estranged father, a Black ranch hand and odd jobs man.
For history buffs, this takes place in Denver in the winter of 1923. The Front Range of the 1920s was rife with social tensions fueled by rapid urban construction, increased migration, and an agricultural recession. Denver’s population grew by 12% to 288,000 during the decade. In Englewood, which is my city and a neighbor to Denver, the population grew by 83.20% between 1920 and 1930.
Displaced sugar beet laborers, mostly Latinos, moved into neighborhoods like Auroria from rural areas. Five Points was seeing an influx of Black residents from the Great Migration, while White Flight to nearby suburban areas ramped up. During the decade, +13,000 homes were built in Denver, expanding neighborhoods like West Highland and Berkeley.
This was also the time when the KKK and the oligarchs ruled the streets of the expanding Colorado capital. Given this context, it also means that the authorities were none too interested in investigating the death of an old Black cowboy.
Miss. Spain navigates the socioeconomic and racial landscape with care, and not a little danger. In the 1920s, the KKK was at its peak membership, with “nearly one-third of the city’s white, male, U.S.-born population were members. Gov. Clarence Morley and Denver Mayor Ben Stapleton were Klansmen, and the 1925 legislative session saw a Republican majority filled with Klan-selected candidates.” The Colorado Sun, Fact Check.
Side note: In the 1920s, some Englewood residents tried to get Denver to annex both our city and the library in the 1920s, and the Englewood residents voted it down both times. There are several references in the book to “driving on Broadway” to and from a ranch south of the city, which no doubt took the characters through Englewood toward what is the modern-day Highlands Ranch housing development. They would have driven past the National Film Company, which operated a movie studio at the Tuileries on the 3300 block of Broadway until 1923, when it was sold to Alexander Industries.
The author breathes life into the vibrancy of Five Points and a much younger Denver, still surrounded by thousands of acres of untouched ranchland. Spain hunts for clues using Sherlock Holmes as a quasi-mentor. She’s joined by a young orphan, Eddie, and a WWI veteran, a sports-car-driving, developing love interest, Jack, the Black pastor of Spain’s childhood church. The trio gets more than they bargain for in their quest to solve her father’s murder. Danger, Klan rallies, and money collide when they uncover deep secrets that the powerful want to keep hidden.
I chose this book for the strong Black female character and was not disappointed. Not only is the main character smart, witty, self-deprecating, and resourceful, but the author also shines a light on the racial, economic, and social issues in Denver in the 1920s that many modern Coloradans may not be familiar with. This was an easy and enlightening choice for Black History Month.
Now on to the wine!
Boulder is about a 45-minute drive from my house, which, for visiting a winery, is almost next door. BookCliff also has a vineyard and tasting room in Palisade, which is about 4 hours west of me. Good for a long weekend, but not a day trip.
I met up with my friend Lori, and we settled at the bar in their cozy Boulder tasting room. We were the only customers there for a while, so we got to linger before ordering, make conversation with the wine tender, and catch up with each other.
BookCliff has tasting flights of four wines for $16, and you can pick any combination of four you’d like. I went with the 2024 Rosé, 2024 Albariño, 2023 Graciano, and the 2023 Tempranillo. The tasting came with crackers and fig jam.
Normally a white wine bish, I was surprised that I liked the Graciano and Tempranillo more. We’ve had unseasonally warm days this winter, so it was about 55º and sunny outside, perfect patio weather if I say so. And if you know me, I’ll find any excuse to drink wine on a patio.
Tasting Notes
The medium-bodied Graciano would be perfect for a sunny afternoon or warm evening by the fire outside. I got notes of sour cherry/red fruits, peppercorn and eucalyptus, and a touch of vanilla from the new American oak aging.
With only 162 cases produced and being unavailable to ship, I took a bottle home for more research. At home, I ended up pairing it with a “gringo” ropa vieja and rice that I made up with what I had on hand. The acid balanced out the rich beef and accentuated the spices quite well.
If you’re ever in Boulder or Palisade, swing by the BookCliff tasting rooms and try it. Let me know what you think on my Instagram.
Come back next month after I try a Chenin Blanc from The Storm Cellar and read up on “Captain Jack,” the most unusual woman of the 19th Century in Colorado.
