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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 52 WINES&VINES April 2017 I f the old adage in business and real estate is correct, and success is all about location, some may have said winemaker Ben Parsons wasn't making the best decisions when launch- ing his new wine company. As the U.S. economy plunged into recession, Parsons envi- sioned an urban winery in a city and state that weren't known as epicenters of wine appreciation. Born in the United Kingdom, Parson worked in the London wine trade before pursuing winemaking in Australia. He took a job offer at Canyon Wind Cellars in Palisade, Colo., and went from making wine in an established New World region to quite literally a new world of winemaking and grapegrowing. After five harvests, Parsons had built a reputation of winemaking expertise and soon was consulting for 20 different wineries in the region. Parsons had a hunch that an urban winery would be a good fit for a rapidly changing Denver, and he also had a unique name. The winemaker founded Infinite Monkey Theorem in 2008. "Somehow I managed to find investors to start an urban winery, which at that time was an unproven concept in a state that is not known for its wine," he said. He and his then-girlfriend (who would later become his wife) bought a used truck and trailer and drove more than 20,000 miles over two months scrounging up second-hand winemaking equipment to support the fledgling enterprise they founded for about the same amount of money that a single acre of vines would cost in Napa Valley. The name for the winery comes from the concept that an infinite number of monkeys banging away at typewriters would eventually produce any piece of text including this article. Starting in an old Quonset hut in Denver, they produced 2,000 cases during their first vintage, followed by 4,000 cases the next year. Back then Parsons used connections in the Denver restaurant scene to sell almost all of the wine on premise. That helped build brand recognition and enabled Parsons to move into a 15,000-square-foot building in north Denver. Infinite Monkey Theorem Urban winery in Denver finds success with edgy branding and canned wine By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT