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Libelle (pronounced lee-bell) was born out of passion for great wine and desire to disrupt the status quo. Kathleen Ward makes wine in Napa Valley from grapes sourced from a small grape-growing region in Western Colorado. It’s a place where cold weather vines thrive because they grow in a microclimate. While the rest of Western Colorado is frozen in the winter, Grand Valley is safe from extreme cold, and grape varietals like Riesling and Grüner Veltliner flourish.
Picture credit: Katie Abbott
What’s in a name?
The word “libelle” was always part of Kathleen’s vocabulary. Her grandmother is Dutch, and when Kathleen was a child, the two of them would sit outside and watch dragonflies, or libelles, hover and dart around in the back garden. She loved the word libelle for it’s grace and she was always fascinated by the insect’s perfect balance and precision. When it came time to name her wine label, Kathleen chose Libelle to honor those wonderful days with her grandmother and to strive to make wines as balanced, bright, and beautiful as the libelle.
A Sense of Place…
Palisade, Colorado is small, quiet town just east of Grand Junction. It sits at just over 4,700 feet above sea level, and its dry temperate days, and cool nights make it an ideal climate to grow grapes. These cool nights preserve the natural acidity in the fruit, and allow for longer hang times. Grapes that stay on the vine for longer periods are able to develop more complex flavor profiles. But even more remarkable is the sandstone, shale, and sandy loam soil that over millennia has eroded from the Grand Mesa down into the valley. Clean mountain air blows through Palisade, and each spring the snow pack melts and finds its way through tributaries into the Colorado River that irrigates all of the farmland in the area.
Photo credit: J. Janecek
