Growth Mindset: Lance Hanson has built a biodynamic brand in the high desert of Colorado
Written by Cheryl Baehr
Click here to Watch the full episode from our first season and dive deep into the story of Jack Rabbit Hill Farm and its biodynamic wines, organic spirits and ciders.
Lance Hanson can still vividly remember the first bottle of wine he and his wife, Anna, sold. It was a Saturday morning in early July of 2002 at the Aspen farmers market. With a fold-up table, a tent and a cooler of bottles behind them, the Hansons wondered whether or not they would make a sale.
“We’d rolled up our sleeves, planted vines and started making wine, so when we sold our first bottle, it was proof we’d come full-circle,” Hanson says. We’d grown grapes, made wine and got somebody to taste it and buy it at nine in the morning. As soon as that happened, we looked at each other and said, “We’ve succeeded. This is going to fly.”
Eighteen years later and going stronger than ever, Jack Rabbit Hill Farm is a bastion of biodynamic wine, cider and spirits in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, an area on the state’s western side not exactly hospitable to grape cultivation. Hanson knew this going in; the fact that it’s a difficult growing climate is one of the reasons they decided to go all-in on natural farming, seeing it as a way to differentiate their wine from those of other producers, as well as a chance to express the unique qualities of the environment in the wine in as pure a manner as possible.
It was an interesting path for Hanson, who had spent the 15 years prior to starting Jack Rabbit Hill Farm working for early-stage software companies in California’s Bay Area. A classics scholar by training who bailed on a PhD program days before he was scheduled to start, Hanson liked his job in tech and loved the lifestyle he and Anna had cultivated in California. However, while driving home after a trip to his family’s farm in Colorado for Easter in 2000, the pair took all of 30 minutes to decide that they were ready for something new.
“We both had an adventurous spirit and felt that we had reached the end of that period of life and had done what we could do,” Hanson says. “Neither of us was interested in hanging out and doing the motions and then end up one day having regrets of having not tried something when we were young enough and had the energy to do it. In retrospect, it was a very ridiculously risky thing to do. Our friends back in California looked at us, shook their heads and told us that it was never going to work and that we’d be back in a couple of years.”
At times, they nearly proved their friends right. The learning curve was steep and required significant investment of time and money, and there was an adjustment period for the kids, who weren’t quite sure how they felt about being moved from their comfortable, suburban lifestyle to rural Colorado. Still, the Hansons powered through, diving headfirst into biodynamic farming, learning how to grow grapes in a way that leveraged natural systems rather than using chemicals. They also learned the business side of winemaking, spending the first two years selling directly to consumers at the Aspen farmers market before moving into restaurant sales.
Since they founded Jack Rabbit Hill, the Hansons have added much more than grapes to their repertoire, getting into the spirits, cider, medicinal herbs and hemp. However, for as many successes as they’ve enjoyed, Hanson is quick to admit that there has also been a fair share of failure. One of those, a large investment in hops with the intention of selling an organic product to the craft beer industry, taught him a valuable lesson.
“I think in any craft endeavor, you have to be prepared, deal with failure and roll with the punches,” Hanson says. “You’re going to have failure – hopefully not too many train wrecks – but if you are not psychologically prepared to meet failure and have the inclination to walk away when people are not liking what you do, you’re not going to go very far.”
Two decades into the endeavor, Jack Rabbit Hill Farm continues to evolve, thanks to Hanson’s willingness to roll with those punches and try new things. That tenacious spirit has proven particularly important in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically impacted the farm’s wine business because of the resulting restaurant shut-downs. Within a few days, he and his small team developed a hand sanitizer that they are selling directly to consumers and are launching a new product line called Jack Rabbit Hill Gardens based on medicinal hemp, CBD, calendula and different herbal medicine oils. It’s a big move for the Hansons, because it is the first time they will be selling outside of the hospitality industry.
“I think the success we’ve had is an enduring success, and hopefully it will continue,” Hanson says. “I attribute it to our ability to stay focused on our customers. From the beginning, we’ve understood that, and over the years, those relationships have really helped us. That’s’ what’s made the difference.”