John Sutcliffe

John Sutcliffe

Restauranteur
One of Colorado’s finest wine makers
World Class wine producer
Engagingly good wines

After graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Princes William and Harry are recent graduates) Sutcliffe served as an officer in the Royal Welch Fusilies. After completing his military service he studied at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and graduated with a BA in history.

Eager to learn about the restaurant business at its most intense he moved to New York City and began working for Warner LeRoy at Maxwell’s Plum. He subsequently became manager and was then appointed the first director of the reopened Tavern on the Green. Warner had brilliantly renovated and decorated the venerable legendary New York City landmark. Moving to Charleston SC in 1978, Sutcliffe opened 16 restaurants in the south in the next 12 years.

In 1989, Sutcliffe and his wife Emily acquired a ranch in Colorado and planted the first 26 acres of grapes in 1995. By 1999, the expanded Vineyard was ready, and the grapes pressed into wine. Engagingly good wines that were marketed in 2001. Sutcliffe Vineyard wines can be found in great restaurants all over the country. Sutcliffe Vineyards is 12 acres of Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Petit Verdot, with an additional 15 acres further down the road at Bob Schusters.

The vines are tempered by hail, spring freezes, blistering sunlight and fierce, dust laden winds. We grow wines, and we would not be denied any part in the wondrous, biblical process in this sculpted canyon under a brooding Sleeping Ute Mountain.