The Ordinary Fellow Sparkling Riesling 2024
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The Land
These Riesling vines grow directly above an unexcavated Ancestral Puebloan settlement. Box Bar Vineyard, a 13-acre site on the slopes of Sleeping Ute Mountain in Colorado's Four Corners, sits 100 yards above Yucca House National Monument, and the producer reports the ground is still speckled with ancient pottery shards. At 6,000 feet, it is one of the highest planted vineyard sites in Colorado — thin air, fierce sun, cold nights, and ancient sandstone underfoot. That combination is why a pH of 3.01 is possible here without picking green: the altitude preserves acid while the high-desert light ripens flavor. The site is farmed regeneratively, without sprays, and harvested entirely by hand, out of stated respect for the land's history.
The Wine
100 percent Riesling, made as a traditional-method, Sekt-style sparkler with zero dosage — no sugar added at disgorgement, so the 9.2 g/L of titratable acidity arrives undiluted. Whole clusters were pressed and fermented in stainless steel, then the wine aged en tirage before hand disgorgement; it was bottled October 14, 2025 at 12.3 percent alcohol, 250 cases in all. The aromatics carry a saline intensity: lemon cream, a whisper of petrol, and honey. The palate is sleek and lively, with cardamom and candied ginger running through peach and ripe pear, and the brut-nature finish snaps shut clean.
The People
Ben Parsons found Box Bar fallen into disrepair and leased it to bring it back to life — a second act for a winemaker who had already reshaped Colorado wine once as founder of Denver's Infinite Monkey Theorem, the urban winery that pioneered canned wine. Trained in enology at the University of Adelaide, Parsons opened The Ordinary Fellow in October 2021 in Palisade's original United Fruit Growers packing shed. Longtime Grand Valley vineyard manager Juan Adan, whom Parsons met at Canyon Wind Cellars in 2001, manages Box Bar through the growing season. The stated philosophy is plain: farm carefully, intervene minimally, and prove Colorado deserves serious wine.
Food Pairing
Freshly shucked oysters with mignonette — zero dosage and that 3.01 pH make this a wine that meets brine head-on. Potato chips with crème fraîche and trout roe, because high-acid bubbles against salt and fat is the oldest trick worth keeping. Buttermilk fried chicken, where the mousse scrubs the palate between bites. Aged Gruyère on a board, its nuttiness catching the wine's honeyed edge. Sparkling Riesling from a 6,000-foot Colorado vineyard is a bottle with a story attached — open it when the people at your table are worth telling it to.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
Riesling is a truly noble grape, known for its incredibly high acidity and a flavor profile that can range from bone dry to lusciously sweet. Germany is its heartland, and it's responsible for some of the world's most age-worthy examples, but Riesling also thrives in Austria, where it usually is dry. In Alsace, it takes on a slightly richer texture, while in parts of Australia, like the Clare and Eden Valleys, it displays a uniquely powerful and lime-tinged aromatic profile. This is a grape that has no problem showcasing its origins, and it's a fantastic example of how one variety can show many different expressions, each with its own unique appeal.
