FAQS About Our Wines

Generally, natural winemaking follows a low-intervention approach to winemaking reminiscent of traditional methods. Chill Switch winemaker Dave Aschwanden draws on generations of knowledge from his Swiss ancestors and embraces this philosophy. At Chill Switch, crafting natural wine involves considerable time and patience (and none of the freaky stuff). It’s very important to us to have transparency in our process, so you know exactly what is going into your body.

“Natural” or “clean” are terms that don’t have precise definitions when applied to wine. At this point, the general consensus is wine made without any additives or adjustments and a very small amount of sulfites added at bottling. Every bottle of our wine has a disclaimer of all the things we don’t do during winemaking.

Chill Switch Wines is passionate about producing natural wine because we believe in blending ancestral wisdom with natural practices for an authentic experience. We believe in letting nature take its course, exercising patience to ensure our wine reaches the perfect moment when it tastes exactly as intended and is ready to serve. Our winemaking process focuses on transparency, as we believe people should know exactly what ingredients are in the wine they consume.

It is difficult to answer this question because there can be 150-250 different possible undisclosed additives in wine and who knows which one(s) are giving you a reaction.

Every wine has some sulfites because they occur naturally. If you are truly allergic to sulfites, then you would notice it when you consumed certain foods as well (it’s used to prevent oxidation and browning). Dried fruits, salad bars, pre-cut fruit salad, etc. all are treated with sulfites and you would likely react when you eat those things. The problem is some winemakers are not very judicious in their use of sulfites and end up adding a lot. We add a tiny amount just before bottling, and we hope it is so small that you can still drink our wine without issues.

All of our grapes are Colorado grown, within an hour of our winery. We have our own small vineyard and we purchase grapes locally as well.

Wow, this is a big question. There are colors, flavors, aromatic enhancers, acids, tannins, preservatives (sulfites and much stronger things as well), fining materials (used to clarify wine), filters and much, much more. In the United States, there are 76 FDA approved additives that can be used in winemaking.

Our winery is in Cedaredge, Colorado, which is about an hour south of Palisade on the western slope