Raise Your Glass: Buckel Family Wine Has Opened A New Tasting Room In Gunnison

Photos Courtesy of Buckel Family Wine

After a full day of summer play, there may be nothing better than putting your feet up with a nice glass of local wine. Buckel Family Wine sources 100-percent Colorado grapes and has recently opened a warehouse winery in Gunnison. 

At the tasting room, try an array of options from “taste the line-up” — a one-ounce pour of each wine — to wine flights and wine by the glass. The flights are arranged in red or white flights and are a great way to try different pairings with a charcuterie board. After finding a favorite, you are welcome to buy bottles, cases or join the wine club. 

“The tasting room is a place for locals and tourists to mingle in an unassuming space,” shares Shamai Buckel. 

Buckel Family Wine was founded in 2017 by winemaker Joe Buckel and his wife Shamai. 

They have been getting their wine into the hands of restaurants and liquor stores throughout Colorado, including Josh Niernberg’s list at Bin 707 Foodbar in Grand Junction. 

Buckel wine is handmade in an old-world natural style, with the red wine being unfiltered. Classic winemaking techniques are used, with minimal intervention and no sugars or additives. Wines produced by Buckel Family Wine include a Red Blend called “The Flyer,” Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Cinsualt, Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. 

This new tasting room may just be the perfect wind-down activity after a bike ride at Hartman Rocks, boating Blue Mesa, hiking the Black Canyon or fly fishing the Gunnison River. It’s located at 1018 Highway 135, Unit B, just north of Gunnison on the east side of the highway as you are heading toward Crested Butte.

Originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of SPOKE+BLOSSOM.