Deep Roots Winery Bringing Frosé and More to RiNo This Summer

RiNo is teeming with restaurants, breweries, distilleries, and bars, but wineries? Those are a little harder to come by. As of summer 2020, though, the trendy neighborhood will indeed get a new winery—a winery that makes vino-based cocktails and frosés. (Yes, frosés plural.)

Deep Roots Winery & Bistro will open a second tasting room in the former C Squared Ciders space at 2875 Blake Street. (C Squared closed at the end of last year and is building a new facility in Penrose.) The winery was originally scheduled to open there in late March, but the coronavirus changed that timeline; now Deep Roots is shooting for a July debut. “We have been busy figuring out how to navigate this pandemic, much like the rest of Denver,” co-owner Teara Walters says.

The new RiNo location will allow Deep Roots to quadruple its production capabilities, as well as giving the family-owned brand more space to serve expanded food and drink menu. Its two-year-old original location is nearby in LoDo, at 1516 Wazee Street.

Walters and her husband Steve were actually looking in Golden for their second tasting room, but when friends at the Rackhouse (the facility that houses Bierstadt Lagerhaus and which used to house C Squared) told them the RiNo space would be available this year, the couple jumped at the chance. Between Deep Roots and Bierstadt, the Blake Street space will be a one-stop-shop for lager and wine. (As well as those wine cocktails and frosés.)

Deep Roots will bring in tons more grapes (literally) to make three new varietals. When it started in 2015, the founders used three tons of California grapes to craft their Petit Syrah, old vine Zinfandel, and Cabernet Franc. In 2018, Deep Roots marked a milestone when it began experimenting with Western Slope grapes for a Gewürztraminer and Cabernet Franc rosé. The Walters were so pleased with the results that they doubled down on Colorado-grown grapes last year. This year, they’re hoping to bring in between 25 and 30 tons of grapes, with at least half coming from Colorado.

The RiNo outpost will have a dozen wines on tap, at least two forms of frosé— including one frosty blood orange Sauvignon Blanc blend—and a still-developing menu of wine cocktails. Walters says that they’ll also have an 8-by-20-foot food container, which will serve favorites from the LoDo location including pizzas, charcuterie boards, and desserts, but they also plan on adding street taco specials and a Sunday brunch. And there will be a viewing deck on top of the food container overlooking the garden below.

“This will definitely be more relaxed than our LoDo location. It’s a winery production space, so it’ll have a bit more of a laidback aspect that I think goes well with RiNo,” Walters says.

Look for Deep Roots Winery’s sequel location in RiNo to open mid-summer; meanwhile, hit up the LoDo spot, which is reopening for dine-in service on May 27. It will be open Tuesday-Saturday, from 3 to 8 p.m.