The Tasting Panel magazine

JULY 2012

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Ever Evolving B en Parsons, the delightfully self-deprecatory, British- born winemaker and owner of The Infinite Monkey Theorem Winery (TIMT), started out in 2008 in a Quonset hut on Denver's industrial West Side because "I'm happiest in a city, Denver has an up-and-coming restaurant community and my young, educated clientele loves locally sourced wine." Fruit from Colorado's fertile Western Slope comprises the bulk of bottled production, although his innovations into canned and keg wines take grapes from just about anywhere. Parsons has gotten his wine into more than 200 Colorado restaurants but is particularly proud of his kegs, sold to 30 or so local customers. "The juice stays good for three months, which means little wastage. We also don't have to purchase bottles, so restaurants can keep the price south of $9 per glass." A move this summer to Denver's hip River North District will bring a much bigger space in which to increase produc- tion from 10,000 case-equivalents (CE) currently to a planned 200,000 CE within five years. The Infinite Monkey Theorem states that a monkey striking the keys of a typewriter at random for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type the complete works of BRAND PROFILE URBAN WINERY THE INFINITE MONKEY THEOREM GETS INTO KEGS by Ben Weinberg / photo by Kevin Moloney Shakespeare. As Parsons says in his clipped, Kentish accent, "The Theorem is a lot like winemaking. There are so many choices to make and so many possible outcomes. We started out focusing on the variables that really mattered: the best grapes, harvesting them at their peak, nurturing each batch of juice and getting to know the people who drink it. We also got rid of what doesn't matter: vineyard location, rolling hills and a tasting room covered in granite and marble." While national distribution is Parsons's next agenda item, starting with New York and Los Angeles, the peripatetic entrepreneur is also teaming up with Justin Brunson of the Masterpiece Deli to create a salumeria and artisanal restaurant in the trendy Highlands neighborhood northwest of Denver. "This isn't rocket science," Parsons is fond of saying. "The best wines are made from perfect grapes, wherever they're grown or processed. I've never understood why wineries want to limit on-premise distribution to top-level restaurants. The goal is to have the juice drunk by as many people as possible, right? Making wine accessible is another reason to produce it in a city." Owning and operating a winery is all about passion. For this urban winery pioneer, the proof of that passion is in his wine. www.theinfinitemonkeytheorem.com Ben Parsons is the owner of Denver's urban winery, The Infinite Monkey Theorem. july 2012 / the tasting panel / 35

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