Sauvage and his winemaking partner Patric Matysiewski are relative newcomers to the state’s premier winemaking region, but they are also pioneers of switching out some traditional European grapes for hardier hybrids. Sauvage and Matysiewski don’t just grow the new-kid-on-the-block grapes. They have learned to tweak their wine-making to better accommodate these different styles of grapes that have been snubbed by many vintners and even declared to be illegal in the winemaking regions of France. “They don’t behave like traditional wine grapes,” said Sauvage. Hart Van Denburg/CPR NewsA vineyard worker grasps a bunch of grapes before clipping them of a vine at the Sauvage Spectrum winery in Palisade. Hart Van Denburg/CPR NewsA vineyard worker hauls a bucket of harvested grapes at the Sauvage Spectrum winery in Palisade, Colorado, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. Climate’s impact on grapes and how it changes wine’s flavor Sauvage began dabbling in hybrid grapes nearly a decade ago after freezes destroyed 75 percent of his traditional grape crop. Another deep freeze in 2020 took out about 90 percent of his grapes as well as those of many growers around Palisade. Some growers doggedly replanted the traditional grape varieties, but Sauvage, who calls himself through-and-through a farmer, pivoted to more of the hybrids. So, here he and Matysiewski are, in the whine and grind of a grape crushing day, doing their part to t …
