Among the many vineyards that have taken advantage of the ideal soil and climate of Western Colorado, Talon Wines has distinguished itself by offering three distinct labels under one winery. Their unique and complete portfolio of award-winning traditional, fruit, botanical, and honey wines presents over 25 unique varieties. Founder Glenn Foster has built on a long-standing family tradition that was established in Sonoma Valley and has made the most of the surrounding bounty of local produce that the prolific Western Slope has to offer by crafting fruit and botanical wines in addition to their signature rich reds and flavorful cold-fermented whites.
Glenn’s family has deep roots and a wealth of winemaking experience. Their history began in 1976 when Reed Foster Sr. co-founded Ravenswood Winery in Sonoma, California. There, Reed led the company for nearly 30 years, and wine became a part of everyday life in the Foster family. After spending ten years in Colorado, Reed’s youngest son, Glenn, returned to the family business to learn the art of winemaking.
Glenn and his wife, Natalie, who worked in the Ravenswood administrative offices and tasting room, returned to Colorado in 1995, where they discovered the growing wine industry on the Western Slopes of the Rockies. Here, Glenn paired his foundation of winemaking with hands-on experience working with three distinguished wineries. Glenn came to understand the symbiotic nature between weather, soil, water, varietal choice and farming practices while honing his winemaking skills and became intimate with lab work, blending, quality control, aging and filtering. He realized that great wine is the result of both art and science.
In 2005, Glenn and Natalie opened the Colorado Wine Room, a small shop featuring some of the best wines in Colorado. They began producing wine for the first time under their own label, but the company needed a name. Glenn’s love of falconry, training, and hunting with raptors inspired a new name, and Talon Winery was born.
The space in which they worked was tight to say the least. The 1,700-square-foot retail shop only had a small room devoted to winemaking, which held five tanks that barely fit through the doors. With the necessity to expand, the Fosters set out to find a new home for the winery. They landed in Palisade and decided to take a leap of faith by purchasing a trio of wineries under one company which offered an expansive production facility and two retail locations.
Today, Talon Winery still produces wine under all three labels: Meadery of the Rockies, St. Kathryn Cellars, and Talon Winery. Each winery offers a distinguished lineup of unique award-winning wines. In fact, when they submitted 12 wines to the Governor’s Cup competition, they won 12 awards! Talon Winery is known for classic-style, fruit-forward wines made from the finest grapes available. Their somewhat proprietary methods preserve and enhance the naturally developed flavors from grapes grown in the mineral-rich soils of Western Colorado’s high desert environment.
Their Meadery endeavors have continued under Meadery of the Rockies, and they have expanded on the ancient tradition of making honey wines that are guaranteed to warm the heart and lift the spirit. At St. Kathryn Cellars, sweeter-edged, highly flavorful wines made from local fruit from the valley are crafted to be enjoyed chilled for any occasion.
The tasting rooms for Talon Winery, where you can sample the wide variety of flavorful wines and meads from each of their endeavors, have now been consolidated into one inviting space, Talon Wines at the Meadery, which resides just outside Palisade on G road. Stop by to enjoy charcuterie, take a tour and sample their entire portfolio of wines, which are all fermented, aged and bottled on-site. You might even catch a live falcon or two as Glenn sometimes invites Nature’s Educators from the Front Range, who bring several birds of prey on tour. It’s a great chance to get up close and personal with these amazing birds and enjoy the unique flavors of Talon Wines.
