Lance Hanson and Peak Spirits
Monday, September 15th, 2008
In 2001, Lance Hanson was a software engineer in California. He wasn’t looking for a life change or a reason to leave. After a visit to a family farm Colorado, things changed.”Here we were, on the road, talking about the farm, and felt a pull, a very strong pull.” “We had no background in farming, organic or otherwise. But suddenly we envisioned something bigger.”
The Hansons sold their home in California and were back on Redlands Mesa within two months. They moved into a small barn-apartment on the land, designed and built their new home, and opened Jack Rabbit Hill Winery in time to celebrate their first harvest in September 2002. As the first growers to raise grapes on Redlands Mesa - or anywhere
in the state outside of the Grand Valley - they faced challenges, not the least of which was a 1,400 foot jump in altitude.
Peak Spirits, an offshoot of Jack Rabbit Hill, is also Colorado’s only organic distillery. The label’s brandy, made from fresh, organic fruit, has made a name for itself nationally. Hanson’s Jack Rabbit Hill wines are also the first, and only, labels featured in the Sustainable Settings state-certified tasting room. Sustainable Settings - at the Thompson
Creek Ranch Homestead off Highway 133 in Carbondale - houses research, demonstration and educational activities focused on sustainable agriculture and green development.
Jack Rabbit Hill and Peak Spirits, two pioneering organic wine and spirits makers in western Colorado, are now Demeter-certified Biodynamic(R), completing a two-year transition from USDA-certified organic practices that began in March of 2006. The estate winery and
distillery are two of only 39 agricultural producers in North America to embrace the rigorous Demeter Biodynamic standard.
Visit Peak Spirits http://www.peakspirits.com/index.php
