As frigid weather and short daylight hours continue, Longmont business owners are planning a special winter event series that will take diners on a trip of the palate to some of the world’s top wine regions.
Doug Oldfield, co-owner of Longmont’s Küper Wine Bar, worked with Annie and Mark Danielson, proprietors of The St. Vrain venue, to come up with the Winter Wine Dinner Series.
“We were trying to come up with some sort of special event that we could put on here in Longmont that would just kind of elevate some of the available experiences,” Oldfield said. “Really it was more about finding some interesting and fun things for folks to do in the colder, slower season of the year after the holidays.”
Oldfield and the Danielsons had a venue and a curated wine list, but then had to find the perfect cuisine.
“The first name that came out of Annie’s mouth was Grant (Buchanan) — at GB Culinary — and thought that Grant would be an amazing partner to bring in,” Oldfield explained. “And so we quickly brought them into the fold, and said ‘here’s what we’re kind of thinking,’ and they were 100% on board.”
Buchanan curated a menu that paired with wines from the Southern Hemisphere, which was chosen to cheer up diners with thoughts of warmth amid the cold weather, Oldfield said.
“We wanted it to kind of be a holistic approach to the experience — we wanted the right flowers, the right music — we wanted everything to just be really elegant and really nice for this elevated event,” he explained.
The team searched for the right music, but no choices seemed to fit with their vision, until they realized the perfect musicians were right here in Longmont.
“The Küper is one of the lead sponsors for the Longmont Symphony, and so it kind of occurred to me that, well, we need music, we’re already supporting the symphony, and this would even further elevate the experience,” he said.
The dinner series team reached out to the symphony’s board to ask about not only providing music for — but hosting — the event, and the board agreed.
So the Winter Wine Dinner Series came together. It will consist of three parts: South America on Jan. 25, South Africa on Feb. 22 and Oceania on March 15. Tickets are $150 per person, and each consist of a four-course dinner paired with wines.
“We have sold a lot of tickets for our first event — we expect to sell out soon,” Oldfield said.
For those who don’t have the budget for the dinner series, but love to try wines from around the world, there are plenty of options at Küper Wine Bar, he said.
“We’re always thinking about ways to reach out to people that have other priorities in life that don’t allow them to maybe enjoy that really expensive bottle of wine,” Oldfield explained. “Thursdays for instance, is our half-price bottle night, and we’ve had incredible results from that … we have happy hour prices where you can get a glass of wine for $7 or $8.”
The wine bar also offers flights for $15, which offer customers a chance to try wines from around the world.
Doug and Julie Oldfield created Küper Wine Bar after their children grew up and they decided to pursue their love of wine. Doug Oldfield had spent decades working in high-tech, business, data analytics and sales; his wife had worked as a golf professional. He left his career several years ago to volunteer at a winery in Oregon, while attending college there to learn more about wine; but the couple’s ultimate goal was always to return to Longmont and create their wine bar.
They achieved that dream in October, and their business has been remarkably successful so far, the couple said. It turns out, Longmont residents love wine, Doug Oldfield explained.
“They are asking really intelligent questions about the production process; they are asking really great questions about the different varietals, and I love that,” he explained. “One of the reasons that I wanted to create this is that I love people, and I love wine … we love this community.”
