WineInk: Cartello’s Aspen connections

The moment summer arrived in Aspen this year, I was sipping a glass of Cartello Cabernet Sauvignon. It was the Saturday of the Food & Wine Classic, and — after a cool start to the event that had seen the Grand Tasting Pavilion empty following a flash of lightening — the sun had come out to light up a late afternoon sky.

A small gathering of local wine folks was sitting at a table in front of Jill Carnevale’s charming Ellina Italian restaurant on the Hyman Avenue Mall, nibbling on charcuterie while sampling the wines of Cartello that were being poured by one of the wines founders, Mike Laszlo.

It was a memorable afternoon, not just for the change of season, though it had been a long time coming, but for the beauty of the Alexander Valley wines that were poured. Wine has the power to make magical moments.

Cartello is a relatively new wine project conceived by three friends with a passion for the power of fine wines. The three, who were originally introduced to each other in Aspen by a forward-thinking mutual friend, forged a friendship over their shared love for skiing and wine, and, of course, top-shelf whiskey. Each of the three, Craig Lewis, Michael Oravecz, and the aforementioned Laszlo, came from different backgrounds, and each brought uniquely diverse skills and resources to their wine project.

Here in Aspen, Lewis is likely the best known of the three going back to his stint in the mid-2000s as a professional cyclist who, in addition to riding in a number of events in Aspen, rode for the TIAA-CREF team on the European circuit. Following his career in the saddle, he became a distributor of fine wines from Europe, founding a company called Stelvio Selections, and is a frequent visitor to the Aspen wine community.

Lewis, who was involved in a pair of significant crashes during his cycling career, including one in the Giro d’Italia where he crashed into a road sign and suffered a broken femur, had prepared for a second career.

Upon his retirement in 2014, he told Cycling News, “When I broke my leg in the Giro, I knew that regardless of how long I could race, I needed an exit strategy. I knew I needed to find something I could be as passionate about as I was for racing. I knew it would be wine-related because wine embraces the same culture as cycling more than anything else.”

He worked and learned much about the wine business from former Little Nell Master Sommelier and Boulder restaurateur Bobby Stuckey of Frasca Food and Wine, with whom he remains a friend and workout partner.

Laszlo, originally from Ohio but now firmly ensconced in Boulder, brings a skill set that includes being a “wine lawyer” who guides a large number of wine entities in negotiating the intricacies and morass of state, national, and international wine laws. It is a unique practice and extremely specialized, but one that is vital to the wine industry.

For his part, Oravecz, a native of Richfield, Ohio, is a real-estate developer who, along with his wife Loretta, chased a dream of growing grapes and making wines in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley wine region. In 2003, the couple purchased an exceptional wine property not far from Healdsburg, and over the past two decades, the Oravecz’ have created an oasis, pioneering a 54-acre, 100% biodynamic vineyard and producing wines under the MILA label. Their Grenache, a variety that was part of their inspiration to get into wine, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah bottlings sell out each year with a robust demand especially from their direct-to-consumer (DTC) allocation list. This an estate with a golden future, and the wines have already been recognized for their quality.

The plan for Cartello began to come to fruition for the trio back in 2015.

“Michael (Oravecz) invited me to come out and work in the harvest, and I began to learn a little about the process. Though it was hard work, I fell in love with the property and the wines,” Laszlo explained. “There was extra fruit available that was not used for MILA wines, and the three of us saw an opportunity to help showcase the property with a new label.”

The first vintage of Cartello in 2016 saw just 50 cases of Estate Syrah produced. But it sold out right away to much acclaim. This year, total production for the company’s wines will be around 1,500 cases consisting of Estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, a Sonoma Red Blend, and a Carignane. The wines are beautiful, owing in large measure to their source in the biodynamic vineyards of the MILA property and their production at Healdsburg’s Grand Cru Custom Crush facility under the auspices of the gang of three and MILA consulting winemaker Kian Tavakoli. All contribute in the decisions about the blends and the process of producing Cartello wines.

Fruit-forward, balanced, distinctive, and exhibiting a sense of place, these are wines that can be opened young. And they are a great value as well, selling for between $25 and $50 a bottle retail, depending upon the variety and the vintage. This in contrast to other Alexander Valley offerings that are often priced in the three figures.

“The reality of Cartello is that the model can’t really be duplicated,” said Lewis about the wines.

“Having a wine in this price range sourced from biodynamic, Estate-grown fruit in the Alexander Valley, produced at a facility like Grand Cru, much of it aged in new French oak … that is pretty hard to do,” he laughed.

Cartello’s wines (Cartello translates to “sign” in Italian) are also characterized by their unique label design, which features bold, bright colors and a custom, lower-case typeface that has its roots in the Bauhaus school that is closely related to Aspen and Bauhaus icon Herbert Bayer. Bottles of their Cabernet Sauvignon can be found in the guest rooms at Aspen’s Little Nell hotel. The Cartello wines are on the notable local wine lists at Acquolina, Duemani, and Ellina, as well as in wine shops, including Sopris Liquor and Wine.

There have been numerous wine projects inspired over the years by Aspen connections — from Stuckey’s Italian-sourced Scarpetta, Tony Mazza’s Argentine Bodega Chacra (also a biodynamic property), and Greg Van Wagner’s Ajax Cellars with Oregonian winemaker Martin Woods, to the newly-realized Open Range project from Mark Harvey. Cartello is a part of a wine legacy that proves Aspen to be as inspirational as it is beautiful.  

We are lucky to live in such a great wine town.