TONIGHT ONLY
Ben Parsons, Ordinary Fellow Owner/Winemaker will pour 4 selections:
*2020 Riesling *2021 Colorado Chardonnay
*Colorado Pinot Noir *2019 Red Blend, Columbia Valley, WA
Check out Ben’s Bio here:
Mission
Ben Parsons is a winemaker, brand builder, creative thinker, and a market disrupter with 20 years experience in
the wine industry. He is an expert in storytelling, product development, and establishing a clear route to market.
His passion is winemaking and making wine fun, accessible, and relevant to everyone all the time.
History
Originally hailing from Kent in Southern England, Ben Parsons’ first experience in the wine industry was as a young
graduate salesman for Layton’s Wine Merchants in London, “Selling Bordeaux and Burgundy wines for silly prices
to silly people.” Keen to learn more about the production side of the business, he headed to New Zealand to work a
harvest at Nobilo Wines in Marlborough at their Drylands facility, under the tutelage of chief winemaker and
viticulturist Darryl Wooley. It was during his time there that Ben had his lightning-bolt moment, realizing
winemaking was all he wanted to do: “There I was, sitting on a tanker in Marlborough during the 2000 harvest
watching the sunset and thinking it didn’t get much better.”
Enology
While in New Zealand, Ben was fortunate enough to win a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship that
would cover the tuition, competing against 500 other hopefuls in a public speaking debate. He moved to South
Australia to complete a Graduate Diploma in Enology at the University of Adelaide. He finished top of his year,
graduating in 2001.
Colorado Bound
Upon graduation, Ben started applying for harvest placements and stumbled on a position for a winemaker in
Colorado. Surprised to hear that a wine industry even existed in Colorado, he applied and was immediately
offered a winemaking position at Canyon Wind Cellars in Palisade, where he served as winemaker until 2005
under the tutelage of Bob Pepi Jr. During this time, Ben established a successful wine consulting business that
helped many of Colorado’s wineries and growers. In 2005, Ben moved to Southern Colorado to take a job with
Sutcliffe Vineyards a vineyard he had consulted for since 2003. He transformed the winery from a hobby to a
successful 3,000 case operation garnering national recognition along the way.
Urban Winemaking
In 2007, Ben’s father passed away after a battle with colon cancer. To honor their shared dream of starting a
winery, Ben put together a business plan to start Colorado’s first urban winery. He spent the summer of 2008
driving almost 25,000 miles across the U.S. buying used wine equipment on a shoe-string budget which he housed
in a rented Quonset hut in an alley of Denver’s Santa Fe Art District. During the inaugural harvest of 2008 when
the fruit was ready, he drove his truck to pick up the grapes in Palisade, returning to the hut in Denver for
immediate processing. In 2009 Ben launched The Infinite Monkey Theorem’s wine on tap program championing
this environmentally sound packaging and starting a trend in restaurants and bars across Colorado and the
nation to embrace kegged wine. In 2011, Ben successfully launched TIMT’s first-ever canned wine. TIMT’s first
Denver tap room opened in November of 2012. In 2013, Ben commenced production of Colorado’s first ever
Methode Champenoise Sparkling Wine from 100% Albarino grapes.
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