By Rich Mauro
Special to The Gazette

“Passion is no ordinary word.”

I have long thought this line from the Graham Parker song of the same name also applied to wine. There is something about wine – how the grapes are grown, how the wine is made, the diversity of tastes and styles, how it complements food, how it promotes sociability – that generates a passion among so many. Marshall Vanderburg and I included.

While my passion is writing about wine, Vanderburg’s passion is growing and making it. He worked in a wine store while in college. Later, he worked various positions in the Denver wine business.

Vanderburg launched a career in city planning, software and business operations, but maintained his interest in wine with home winemaking and wine travel, especially to western Colorado wine country.

And when it came time to retire, Vanderburg wanted to realize his passion by making wine his “life encore”. That meant moving in the middle of the pandemic to the Western Slope’s North Fork Valley to pursue a “vine-to-wine” operation. By the end of 2020, Vanderburg and his wife, Janine, had relocated to the valley, which encompasses the West Elks American Viticultural Area.

Vanderburg understandably chose this valley, as it encompasses many of Colorado’s best wineries, such as Alfred Eames, The Storm Cellar, Black Bridge, and Stone Cottage.

Though Vanderburg had been spending a lot of time “familiarizing myself with the elements involved in planting a vineyard from scratch,” I get the sense he didn’t fully comprehend the challenges he would face. From finding suitable land, navigating the purchase, obtaining the necessary tools and equipment, deciding which grapes to plant (pinot noir and riesling), planting the vineyard (battling rocks and boulders) and nursing the vineyard (including adapting to pests, vine diseases and weather challenges). And doing almost all of this by himself (some welcome help from friendly valley neighbors). Talk about DIY.

And yet, Vanderburg persevered, having his first harvest in 2023. And he overcame other challenges to harvest increasing yields in 2024 and 2025, enough to begin bottling his own wine.

With encouraging prospects for the vineyard, Vanderburg’s wine encore has evolved into that second career. But the story doesn’t end there. Vanderburg has adopted the sentiment promoted in the book “Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life” that, as he puts it, “encore careers are often motivated by a desire for personal fulfillment and social impact rather than economic factors”. 

Somehow he has found time to chronicle his experiences, challenges and lessons on the Wine Encore website and  Substack with the hope that others might learn from his experiences.

At a time when the very existence of vineyards and wine is threatened by climate change and a growing temperance movement, Vanderburg’s purity of intent and dedication to his vineyards and his wine is refreshing and inspiring.