Carlson Vineyards

Stopped in randomly and the staff was amazing! The guy helping with our tasting explained each wine and let us sample some of their recipes with the wine. It was SO good. Ended up spending a ton on wine following the tasting, but totally worth it! They gave us pointers on some other places to visit for tastings but they were by far my favorite! This is a stop you have to make!

Great place with some very nice wines. Cute little shop with really friendly staff.
No charge for tastings and no pressure to buy, but we still did because there was 1 we couldn’t resist.
There’s a great outside area out the back where you can overlook the vineyards s d relax, it looked like people had taken their own food out there to snack on & I think they could purchase glasses to drink while they ate too.

It was harvest time so the place was a-​hoppin’ with activity. Nonetheless the two staff who were pouring that day were fun and knowledgeable and made it a worthwhile visit. We left with a Lemberger, a medium-​bodied red with the fun name «Tyrannosaurus Red», and Calico, a Bordeaux-​style blend. Both were excellent and well-​priced.

Great place! The staff is friendly and the scenery is beautiful. When we came in, they were doing their wine sampling outside. They have a great outdoor area with seating, shade, and a great view of the vineyards. The guy pouring our wines took the time to go over each one (and there was like, 17 tastings), which included a dozen or so of their wines and a few wine cocktails. They were all great! I ended up buying a bottle of the T-​rex red (very good). Next time I’m in Palisade I will be back here!

Great spot if you want to stay a while. Shade covered back yard. Buy a glass or a bottle.

Staff had humor it was great! There wines are amazing… try the chocolate rimmed one! So good! One of the few places we bought bottles at on our wine tour. They were extremely generous with their tastings too.

The Traveling Winers on Colorado Wine Trail
Carlson Vineyard was the last stop on our wine trail through the Grand Junction — Palisades, CO area. We were told by several other vineyards and by other winers to make sure and not miss visiting Carlson Vineyards. Unfortunately, our timing was a bit off. We had written down that their closing time was 6pm, and although it took longer to get there than we expected, we still arrived at 5:35 leaving 25 minutes to taste. Or at least we thought! It turns out that they close their doors at 6pm, but the tastings stop at 5:45 — can’t experience the whole experience in only 10 minutes! We will say however, that our tasting room host, Liz, after telling us we had only 10 minutes to taste, did a great job making suggestions on which wines we should taste and why. We appreciated her guidance based on the time limitations.
Our time spent here did not allow sufficient opportunity to experience all this vineyard had to offer. However, based on recommendations, we will definitely be back to embrace the full experience.
The Traveling Winers at The Vineyard Trail

We stop here everytime we’re in Palisade, it I is by far our favorite. Friendly, unpretentious, welcoming. Their wines are great and off the beaten path although they have a fabulous syrah. You will feel like you’ve walked into a family winery so go out back, sit a spell in the shade and drink in the authenticity of the 3^rd oldest winery in Palisade. Salute!

Friendly service, good array of grape and fruit wines. Less gift shop intensive than a lot of places we’ve been today. Good spot to visit.

No pressure to buy. Unlimited tastings. The owners were so nice and gracious. The chocolate cherry wine fabulous. They make a cherry lime aid. Great picnic area behind building. Fun time at the property. Definitely a must visit on your wine tour! Say hi to Taco the Cat!

Every wine we tried was great. The lady who helped us was very kind and took her time to explain a little bit of the history behind the winery and even gave us a short tour which we loved. Try the Cherry Wine with chocolate… delicious!

Carlson has a good variety of wines. If you like fruit or sweet wines then this is definitely the place to give a try. The Laughing Cat Riesling was good and they often have good sales. We got the plum wine for $ 7.00. All tasting was complementary and there was no limit to how many we could try. Normal wines were $ 13.00-$ 20.00.

This vineyard is a neat stop when touring the Palisade vineyards. As the third oldest winery in the state of Colorado, they have a history if making a good product. During several years of no grapes after prohibition the owner experimented with other fruits to make wine. This tradition is still carried on today. We recommend the peach and cherry wines!

This was one of the few wineries we stopped at while on the Palisade Fruit and Wine drive. There was no charge to taste the wine, unlike some of the other wineries we stopped at. I really enjoyed the wine tasting experience here as the pourer was a friendly lady. She was engaging and had an easy going personality.
We sampled a lot of different wines and decided that we didn’t care for the port. We ended up buying a bottle of the Cougar Run Chardonnay uncorked. The prices seem reasonable as well.
Due to the limited space we had in the ice chest and the fact that this was one of the first stops on our 10 day road trip which consists of a lot of camping, we opted to buy just one bottle. I would definitely come back and buy more if the main objective of my trip is for wine tasting.

Fat cat muscat! Great variety of wines. Known for fruit wines.
One of the larger «small» wineries in the area. Make this one a definite stop on your sojourn. You MUST try the cherry wine with a little bit of dark chocolate.
I bought TWO bottles of the delicious Fat Kat Muscat.
BTW — cat lovers — take a look out back. For cats that like to meander up to their hot, but not tin roof, there is an awesome cat ladder!

What a wonderful vineyard. They have such tasty wines for Colorado. By far my favorite has to be Prarie Dog! A great name, a great wine, it’s a win win.
It seems all of their wines have catchy names, and taste terrific. A wonderful drive to Palisade, and it sits on the top of hill, with a little drive inwards.
I highly recommend this vineyard and all its delectible wines. The jellys and jams they produce are equally good. There is nothing bad that I can say about this vineyard. I’ve been to many of the vineyards in Palisade, and by far this is the one location you can’t miss!!!

mmmm wine. Really that’s all there is to say. The wine is incredibly good, the tasting room fun, and the people awesome. Go there, now… well maybe not RIGHT now, but go.

Cute location, plenty of parking, open till 6pm
Staff is friendly and well prepared and happy to let you try all the wine you want!
Wine:
merlot — nice and fruity,
Laughing Cat Sweet baby red was GREAT!,
Laughing Cat Riesling — oh my goodness — yummy, nice and sweet
Laughing Cat Sweet Gewürztraminer — another great wine, great for desert or an evening on the deck
Obviously we enjoyed the wine enough to get a lot of it!
There is also a cute grassed backyard to hand and enjoy your wine.

LOVE their fruit wines and their Laughing Cat varieties. Oh, and the fact that samples are FREE! Most wineries in the area will give you 3 – 5 samples for free and then charge for any more you may want, but Carlson does NOT!
Definitely try the cherry wine — Carlson does it well, and the samples they give you come with quality chocolate sauce on the rim so you drink the wine through the chocolate. Voila — chocolate covered cherries with a kick! Definitely a must-​try, even though the drive is long.
Perks: free sampling, cherry wine, and some really cute cats running around :)

This was one of my favorite wineries from my Grand Junction trip (the lady and I visited 17 of them.)
It’s very welcoming, unpretentious, and super casual. Many of their wines are fruit wines (no grapes involved) and nearly all of them are intensely delicious. We brought home a bottle of Laughing Cat House wine which was delicious (in tasting) and the bottle we brought back is anxious to be consumed.
Their winery feels like the livingroom of a house. Wooden, bright, well-​lit, and filled with happy people laughing and enjoying themselves, sipping on wine and talking while sharing stories and learning about wine.
After tasting wine, but before we decided which bottle to buy we asked if we might have lunch out in their beautiful yard next to the vineyard, and they acted as if they expected that we should have lunch! All of our lunches there were picnics, we kept a cooler in our car to help save on costs and it also allowed us to have lunch whenever we were hungry, without having to find a place to eat.
So we ate out back, played with their kitties, and decided which bottle of wine to buy. It was perfect.
While The Carlson vineyard is a little out of the way in Palisade, it’s easy to find and it’s a definite must-​stop. The staff is friendly and casual and their primary interest is you having fun and tasting some wine you enjoy. If you ever go on a wine-​tasting vacation, this is the place to go!