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Denver has long been lauded as one of the U.S.’s leading beer meccas, where craft breweries see Black Friday-like lines upon the release of experimental brews. Spirits, bolstered primarily by whiskey, sit second.
Wine, on the other hand, has always been the third choice. But the natural wine fervor that has gripped the likes of New York City, San Francisco and the Midwest has made it to the Mile High City.
Denver is one of the country’s fastest growing urban sprawls, and many say that transplants have helped add to local cultural movements. Or that what happens in bigger cities impacts what people want in places like Denver.
Scruggs makes unusual natural wines, such as some combining biodynamic hybrid grapes with foraged apples for a wine/cider crossover. Her first vintage was 2017 and immediately she began being lauded by some of the highest-profile media venues a winemaker could hope for.
Wine Enthusiast put her in its Top 40 under 40 list of tastemakers in 2018. Bon Appetit magazine ran a feature in 2019 titled Krista Scruggs Is Making the Most Exciting, Most Delicious Natural Wine Right Now . Time magazine called her tasting room, a joint operation with a cider producer, one of its 100 Greatest Places of 2019.
In August 2020, NBC s Today show did a segment on her. Host Sheinelle Jones opens it with the prophetic line: Krista Scruggs has always been a bit of a rulebreaker.