Continental Divide Winery Brings Home THREE GOLD MEDALS at The Governor’s Cup
Meet the Man behind the Continental Divide Winery, Jeffrey Maltzman
by Lisa Blake
When Sunset Magazine named his Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon the world’s best in 2015, Jeffrey Maltzman decided to promote wine making from passion project to second career. Formerly a travel and tourism lawyer, he’d once upon a time worked as cruise staff in the Caribbean and piloted a cruise ship wine program called the Winery at Sea.
No stranger to the vintner world, Maltzman grew up near Napa Valley and decided to tug on that lifelong curiosity by volunteering at wineries on weekends in his 40s and eventually returning to college to earn a professional certificate in wine from San Diego State. He began making wine as a hobby in a Napa-Sonoma area co-op facility, giving it all away each holiday season. Maltzman founded and operated two small boutique wineries—Navigator Wines in Napa and Gold Creek Vineyards in the Sierra foothills—before deciding Breckenridge was the ideal place for a winery.
He and his wife Ana have been part-time Breckenridge residents for more than 20 years, making this their primary residence three years ago once all of their children went off to college.
“We’ve always been drawn to Breck’s mountains and loved the fact that Breckenridge felt like an authentic mountain community, populated with unique local businesses,” Maltzman says.
Continental Divide Winery was born in a twist of fate when, in 2014, the Maltzmans were walking with their two daughters and two Australian Shepherds down Main Street and spotted Kent Hutchison and Angela Bryan, their two daughters and pair of Australian Shepherds walking the other direction. The families quickly discovered a mutual passion for wine and, in 2016, Continental Divide Winery was born.
The Maltzman family has wholeheartedly embraced the Colorado craft beverage entrepreneurial spirit—the Hutchinsons have since moved—and the Breckenridge winery has grown to be their largest.
Thanks to Colorado’s ideal diurnal climate, with hot summer days creating ripe sugars and rich intense fruits and cold nights conjuring acids to balance sweetness, the Centennial State is proving to be an advantageous homebase.
“Winemaking is the perfect combination of Mother Nature and science,” Maltzman says. “And the natural beauty and richness of Colorado creates incredible wines that are largely unknown outside the state, but are rapidly gaining a national reputation.”
Continental Divide Winery currently produces 19 wines with 75 percent of grapes sourced from the Palisade area and the West Elks near the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The grapes are smashed and fermented at their Fairplay facility, yielding a locally loved Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay. The winery makes a small amount of reserve Napa Valley Cabernet and Merlot each year at the former Navigator Wines facility, shipping barrels to Colorado for cellaring and aging.
Producing wines at 10,000 feet not only earns Continental Divide a badge as the highest-altitude producing winery in the world, but the elevation and the Maltzmans’ patented closed-cell environment winemaking system minimizes oxygen exposure and allows the fruit and soil’s true flavors to come through.
“This creates a slower, more nuanced fermentation process that yields incredibly elegant wines,” Maltzman says. “During the aging process, we don’t have to fight oxidation as much as our sea-level counterparts do.”
When faced with doubters or naysayers questioning Colorado’s grapes or wine quality, Maltzman invites them in for a blind taste test. As a matter of fact the winery was just awarded THREE GOLD MEDALS at The Governor’s Cup – Colorado Wine competition for their 2022 Storm, 2024 Riesling and 2023 Aromella Rocky Mountain Columbine!
“We’re beyond excited to share that Continental Divide Winery and our amazing winemaker, Dan Kraft, have earned THREE GOLD MEDALS in the 2026 Governor’s Cup, says Jeffrey Maltzman.
“Come into our tasting room,” he says. “We’ll set you up with a glass of wine made with Colorado grapes and one made with California fruit. The majority of people choose the Colorado wines.”
Come raise a glass with them and celebrate their incredible Colorado wine while having a little bit of fun in Breckenridge!
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