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Wineries 1st to Use Colorado’s Shared-Premises Law

Two Grand Junction wineries are the first in the state to take advantage of a two-year-old Colorado law allowing multiple wineries to share premises, the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board announced Friday.

Two Rivers Winery is now sharing a portion of its state-licensed premises with Kahil Winery for the manufacture of wine. Kahil Winery is owned by Two Rivers’ winemaker, Tyrell Lawson.

Two Rivers Winery is now sharing a portion of its state-licensed premises with Kahil Winery for the manufacture of wine.”

The two wineries are jointly using crush pads, processing tanks, bottling lines, and barrel storage and casking areas, the wine board announcement said.

The state law, passed as Senate Bill 1359 in 2008 and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, allows two or more wineries to establish an “alternating proprietor-licensed premises,” allowing them to jointly use the same facilities.

Previously, only a single winery could use any given premises.

“I made the decision to pursue the alternating proprietor license as an employee incentive for my winemaker, Tyrell Lawson,” said Bob Witham, owner of Two Rivers Winery, in a statement. “Tyrell owns his own bonded winery business, and by providing the winemaking infrastructure for his use, he is able to produce wine in a cost-effective way while growing his own brand.”

Doug Caskey, executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, said the alternating-proprietor system is already in use in leading wine-producing states such as California, Oregon and Washington.

The new law, he said, “will have a lasting and positive impact on winemakers throughout Colorado, making it easier for new wineries to enter the business and for existing wineries to expand more rapidly.”

The Boulder-based Colorado Wine Industry Development Board is a unit of the Colorado Department of Agriculture.


Read more: Wineries 1st to use Colorado’s new shared-premises law – Denver Business Journal

by Mark Harden, Denver Business Journal