"It's not a financial issue. We're not closing because the business is doing poorly." Scott Hamilton said that to KJCT in March 2025, when he announced that Red Fox Cellars, his family's winery off 36 Road, would close after ten years.
Eighteen months later, the same building is about to open again. New Terrain Brewing Co., based in Golden, holds its Palisade grand opening on Saturday, October 3, at 691 36 Road. The property changed hands, but how it gets used is staying much the same. Red Fox closed in good shape because a family's plans changed, so the site went to a buyer that had been looking for exactly this kind of place for three years. That buyer plans to run it as a gathering place with a stage and food trucks.
A ten-year plan that ran out of heirs
Hamilton told KJCT that Red Fox was always meant to be a family business, and the family plan had a timeline.
"We had planned after ten years to turn this over to our sons to run. Well, in the meantime, they all left and started their own lives, which was a good thing."
The winery wasn't a minor player. The Colorado Association for Viticulture and Enology, known as CAVE, named Red Fox Cellars its 2017 Colorado Winery of the Year. In that same interview, Hamilton said what he would miss most. "The events were always my favorite thing," he said, and he explained that when an event had a gate charge, the family donated the whole amount to charity.
The shutdown was gradual. Red Fox stopped bottling much new wine and sold its remaining stock at a discount. A June 2025 WesternSlopeNow report later set the final day as July 20, 2025.
How the property changed hands
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| March 2025 | Red Fox Cellars announces a gradual closure after ten years |
| July 20, 2025 | Red Fox's announced final day |
| September 2025 | New Terrain buys the 7.5-acre property for a reported $2.15 million |
| September 25, 2026 | New Terrain announces an October 3 opening |
| October 3, 2026 | Grand opening, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
The sale details came from the Daily Sentinel, as summarized by the trade newsletter Beer Marketer's Insights in December 2025. New Terrain bought the 7.5 acres in September 2025 for $2.15 million after a three-year search on the Western Slope. The Daily Sentinel described the site as the former winery building on land off 36 Road just north of U.S. Highway 6. At the time, the plan was "a new brewery and beer garden" to open the following year.
That opening is now set. The reporting doesn't say what happened at the property between Red Fox's last day and this fall, so the lights-off period is simply the gap between July 2025 and October 2026.
Why a Golden brewery wanted these 7.5 acres
New Terrain is owned by Kaylee and Josh Robbins. WesternSlopeNow reported that they chose the Western Slope because of family ties and a personal connection to the region. The Palisade opening also falls in the brewery's tenth year in Colorado. So a family business that wound down after ten years is handing its building to another family-run business in its tenth year.
What New Terrain is known for in Golden explains why the acreage mattered. In May 2026, Westword included its Golden location in a roundup of Denver-area beer gardens and said "the Golden landscape is as big a draw to New Terrain Brewing as the beer." In September 2026, the brewery held its 10th annual WanderFest in what Thirst Colorado called its "giant backyard." A business built around outdoor space needs a site with room. A winery property with 7.5 acres and an existing building has it.
The setup New Terrain describes for Palisade looks a lot like what Red Fox ran. WesternSlopeNow lists these features:
- a pet-friendly outdoor patio
- a stage for live music
- daily rotating food trucks
- onsite parking
- a kids' area on the far side of the grounds
- a basketball hoop
Hamilton called events the best part of running Red Fox. The new owners have built a stage into the property.
What opening day and regular hours look like
The grand opening runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 3. New Terrain's event listing says 14 beers will be on tap. The Pick & Howl plays from 4 to 7 p.m., and the food trucks are Phat Foodz and Ciao Baby. WesternSlopeNow reports that admission is free and reservations aren't required.
Regular hours after opening weekend, as posted in the All Things Palisade weekly update for September 28:
| Days | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday to Thursday | Noon to 9 p.m. |
| Friday | Noon to 10 p.m. |
| Saturday | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Sunday | 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
The tap room is built for up to 20 taps. The lineup mixes New Terrain's core beers, rotating releases and drinks made specifically for the Western Slope. It also includes non-alcoholic beer and other non-alcoholic drinks, gluten-free beer and a frozen alcoholic drink the brewery calls "Slüsh." The 14 beers on opening day and the 20-tap capacity aren't in conflict. One is the first day's lineup and the other is how many taps the bar can hold.
What hasn't been announced yet
Some details are still unknown, and they're the ones people around town are likely to ask about first.
- Whether beer is brewed on site. In 2025, the Sentinel described the plan as a brewery. The opening coverage this fall calls it a taproom. None of the reporting says where the Palisade beer will be made.
- What the Western Slope beers are. New Terrain has promised beers made for this region but hasn't named any. Nothing published so far says whether any of them use Palisade fruit.
- Whether the property is inside town limits. The Sentinel's photo caption puts the building "near Palisade" off 36 Road, just north of U.S. 6. That location matters more for directions than for anything else.
The tap list on opening day should answer the second question. The first will become clear once the taproom has been open for a while.
Opening weekend and the rest of October
The opening lands the day before the last Sunday Farmers Market of the season. The market runs downtown from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on October 4, the final date of its June 7 to October 4 season. You could go to the beer garden Saturday afternoon and the market Sunday morning, and that's the last weekend you can do both until next June.
After that, October fills up with town events:
- Wednesday, October 7: Planning Palooza II at the Palisade Community Gym. Residents can weigh in on the Peach Bowl Park master plan.
- Thursday, October 8: The Palisade Historical Society's History Talk, "The Geology of the Grand Mesa," with Dr. Rex Cole.
- Saturday, October 10: The Western Colorado History Fair at the Community Gym.
- October 10 and 11: The Palisade Open Studio Tour.
- Saturday, October 17: Fall Town Clean Up at Riverbend Park, 8 a.m. to noon or until the dumpsters fill.
- Saturday, October 31: Trick-or-Treat Street and Touch a Truck downtown, 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
If you drive to 36 Road on US 6 through town, plan around CDOT's intersection project between Rupp Avenue and Iowa Avenue. CDOT's schedule has final paving, striping, signage and pedestrian-crossing work running from September into late fall, with completion expected in late 2026. CDOT also lists Rupp Avenue as closed at US 6 and says local businesses stay accessible. Check CDOT's US 6 Palisade project page for the latest closures before you leave.
On Saturday, the building that held Colorado's 2017 Winery of the Year opens again with 14 beers, a band on the stage from 4 to 7 p.m. and two food trucks parked outside.
Red Fox Cellars shows how much a property's history, size and setting decide what comes next. A 7.5-acre site with a building already suited to events is a different asset from a bare parcel. If you own land around Palisade and want to understand what your property could become, Laura Black can walk you through the use, water and zoning questions in a low-pressure conversation. Schedule a Consultation whenever you're ready.
