(PalatePress) - From the Denver/Boulder area, the Grand Valley AVA of Colorado is past the Continental Divide on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The trip westward on Interstate 70, which winds through canyons that the word “pcturesque” struggles to describe, is rewarding if undertaken carefully to avoid notorious mountain traffic. After following the Colorado River through DeBeque Canyon, the scenery opens up into the Grand Valley, the heart of Colorado’s Wine Country, and the town of Palisade, home of the Colorado Mountain Winefest. I recently moved to Boulder after spending six years in the wonderful wine culture that is the Finger Lakes region of New York. I was happy to find out that Colorado also had a burgeoning wine industry itself so when I learned about the Colorado Mountain Winefest, I had to be there.