Phillips-Rhodes Grant

The Colorado Wine Industry Development Board (CWIDB) created an educational grant program available to current members of the Colorado wine industry or to students in Colorado post-secondary programs focusing on viticulture or enology to advance the development of the Colorado Wine and Grape Industry. The CWIDB created this program in memory of two prominent pioneers of the Colorado wine industry, Doug Phillips and Steve Rhodes.

The purpose of the Phillips-Rhodes Memorial Grant is to encourage members of the Colorado wine and grape industries or Colorado college, graduate-level, or post-secondary vocational training students committed to the Colorado wine and grape industries to pursue training, or educational opportunities that will advance the Colorado wine and grape industries.  Such opportunities might be in grape-growing, water management, winemaking, marketing, business management, liquor code compliance, safety, or any field closely related to and beneficial for the Colorado wine and grape industries.

For fiscal year 2021, running through June 30, 2021, the program may award up to $6000 for scholarships to pursue post-secondary degrees or professional certificates in viticulture, enology, or subjects closely related and beneficial to the Colorado wine industry, as well as workshops, seminars, or short courses in appropriate topics.

The amount of awards will depend on the number of grants selected for the award cycle based on the review committee’s evaluation process, but will fall between $250 and $3000.  The CWIDB reserves the right not to award any money during an award cycle.  The Review Committee designated by the CWIDB will make recommendations for awards to the full CWIDB, who will approve the final awards.

The CWIDB does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, nationality, religion, gender, or physical/mental disabilities.

Honoring:

• Doug Phillips, founder of Plum Creek Cellars in 1984, originally in Larkspur.  Doug was one of the very early adopters of the Colorado Grown message and recognized the need for quality grape-growing to make quality wine.  So he moved his operation to the Grand Valley and planted many grapes along G Road, on East Orchard Mesa as well as in the West Elks.  He was instrumental in writing and passing the Colorado Wine Industry Development Act in 1990 and served as the Wine Board’s first chair until 1998.  And he was the visionary behind the Colorado Mountain Winefest.
• Steve Rhodes, an accomplished cellist, spent his formative early adult years in a California wine cellar.  He returned to Colorado to take over the family’s farm and planted grapes on the slopes of the West Elks AVA between Hotchkiss and Paonia.  Winemaking for Steve was as much about magic and passion as it was about science, but “he always had some mighty fine wine.”  He spread the bounty of Colorado wine to restaurants in Aspen and liquor stores along the Front Range one case at a time, and over time he created a very loyal and extremely enthusiastic following for S. Rhodes Vineyards.

The families and estates of Doug Phillips and Steve Rhodes are not involved in and derive no fiscal benefit in any way from this grant program.  It is intended solely to memorialize the contributions both people made to growing and improving the Colorado wine industry and to honor their memories.