Meet Keenan High | Colterris Winery Operations Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Keenan High and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Keenan, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
My name is Keenan High and I was born in Denver, Colorado. My parents, Scott and Theresa High, met in the the wine industry working for large wholesale distributors over 40 years ago. When my father proposed to my mother he said, “I will not promise you a rose garden, but i will promise you a vineyard.” Around 2000, Theresa said “Alright, where is that vineyard?” They then began looking around for vineyards in the US and stopped by in Palisade on their way towards the west coast and found perfect fruit growing land. The first piece of property they purchased was a peach orchard with famous Palisade Peaches on them. From there they began expanding with more pieces of property and vineyards. Then they started Colterris in 2010 with our first vintage of wine being our 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.
I was born in 1997 when all of this was taking place and was fortunate enough to grow up around the very beginning of Colterris. Getting to see the winery grow while working in the industry from a young age has helped shape me with an entrepreneurial mindset and farmer type work ethic. At the same time, being in a winery working environment led me to develop a passion for wine and small business which I share with my parents. Being able to have access to their wine knowledge and their support has shaped me to become who I am today.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
After the purchase of the peach orchards in the early 2000’s, I moved up to Palisade from Denver to live on the orchard with my mom while my dad continued working at his wine distributorship. Palisade Peaches are fairly famous around the United States so my mom opened a little country store that sold all sort of fun items like salsas, jams, candy, vegetables, and of course Peaches. She taught me how to run the country store around 8 years old and that’s how I spent my summer’s. When I was 9 I began doing agricultural tours of our orchards and by 14 I began running our peach packaging facility.
We have a 6000 sqft. packaging facility with a optical sorting system inside. The system has two digital camera’s that take seven pictures of each peach as it goes down the line and then sorts them into lanes according by size. The system needs around 15 people to operate and we can package around 1500lbs. of peaches in 7 minutes.
Managing this facility at a younger age set me up for success in my adult life and helped me understand the importance of a quality product along with the hard work it takes to do things properly. “If you want things done right, sometimes you need to do it yourself” is a fun but true saying I learned along the way. The peach packing also helped me know what I wanted to do when I went to Arizona State University and got a degree in Software Engineering.
Coming back home to Palisade and work on the Winery has always been a dream of mine and I am ever grateful to be doing it today.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take my friends around a few of our locations and show them the beauty of the vineyards. Our winery has three locations and features a new one in downtown Palisade. We are turning the new Colterris Collections location into a wine museum to be filled with over 16,000 pieces of wine memorabilia which is fun to spend a few hours around. From there, getting to experience our wine production location and cave would be our next stop on a busy summer afternoon to people watch and enjoy a glass of wine. Our overlook location with a view of the Grand Valley for an evening charcuterie board and bottle of wine is the perfect finish to any of the days as well.
Getting to experience any of the small town Palisade eateries, breweries, and wineries is a delight that I show all of my friends and leave up to dealer’s choice as all of them have their own fun atmosphere and attractions.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My family, especially my parents, are the true foundation for who I am today. My story revolves around the passion, support, and faith we have in each other being in a family run business.

We have a sign in our first tasting room that is still there to this day that reads “Home is where our Story Begins” and this couldn’t be any truer.

Website: https://www.colterris.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colterriswines/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColterrisWines/