Claremont Inn & Winery

Eastbound on I-70, at exit 419 and about 30 miles short of the Kansas line, a three-story Palladian façade stands on the north side of the highway. It was meant to be seen from there. The surrounding country is farmland: corn, wheat, soybeans, and sunflowers. The house has stately columns, Palladian windows, towering ceilings, and black-and-white tile floors. Its outside stairs, risers, balustrade, and pier caps were cast in glass fiber reinforced concrete by Stromberg Architectural Products of Greenville, Texas, and the pier caps are topped with ball finials and swag urns. This is the Claremont Inn & Winery, which describes itself as a boutique hotel, winery, event space, and specialty venue. Its mission statement is “To surprise and delight every guest.”

The inn has nine guest rooms, each with its own theme: the Colorado, Golden Prairie, Library, Out of Kansas, Red, Roman Spa, Secret Garden, Sunset, and Waverly rooms. The Bed and Breakfast Innkeepers of Colorado listing counts ten. The Library Room is on the main floor. According to Colorado’s tourism office, the Sunset Room looks out over the plains, and the Secret Garden and Red rooms are often chosen by honeymooners. The garden-terrace Roman Spa Room has a whirlpool tub and its own massage table. The Colorado Room has what the same writer called a “mountain lodge feel.”

An evening in the Great Hall

Most guests first come on the package the inn calls “Taste, Dine & Stay.” An innkeeper walks each couple to their room. On the way, guests can stop at the theatre room to choose a film for later. The tourism office counted hundreds of vintage and modern titles there, with recliners and popcorn. Outside are a putting green and a bocce court.

Every evening a wine tasting begins in the Great Hall, served with an appetizer made for the occasion. A Chef’s Menu Dinner at candlelit tables follows. The inn’s printed guide, the Red Book, describes three courses:

• a composed salad or a soup of the season, sometimes both
• an entrée of a generous cut of beef or Colorado-raised pork, with a potato dish and a seasonal vegetable
• focaccia baked fresh every day
• a house dessert, such as Raspberry Tiramisu, Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake, or Tres Leches Cake topped with strawberries in a Grand Marnier glaze

Guests who are too full for dessert may carry it down to the theatre. Wine is poured by the glass, so no table has to agree on a bottle. Port or a chilled ice wine follows dinner. In the morning, coffee arrives at the door. Breakfast in the Great Hall Dining Room starts with fresh croissants or chocolate almond banana crumb cake. Then comes a plate of house French toast, such as raspberry and mascarpone stuffed, caramel bread pudding, or a mixed berry bake, with chicken apple sausage or smoked bacon and eggs.

The inn’s own copy calls the arrangement “like being on a cruise ship.” Stromberg’s account of the project credits the comparison to the founder, Dave Dischner: “after a guest checks in, all the work is done for them.”

Wine in thirty-bottle batches

The winery makes its wines on the property in 30-bottle batches. The Colorado Wine industry listing puts a batch at about 29 bottles. The grapes arrive as “must,” meaning juice and skins together. It comes from Australia, France, Italy, Germany, and South America, and from vineyards in the United States. Fermenting, filtering, finishing, bottling, and labeling are all done at the inn.

Licensing law forbids calling imported grapes by their varietal names, so the wines carry invented ones. Romeo is the inn’s French Pinot Noir. Marlyn is a French Merlot. Roman Spa Nectar is an Italian Chianti. Among the blends are Tres Blancas and Alice in the whites, and Colorado Red, 3 Billable Hours, and Duo in the reds. The ports are made from late-harvest grapes. They are infused with chocolate and fruit instead of brandy, in flavors such as chocolate raspberry, vanilla bourbon, and mocha. Guests may also make a bottle of their own: staff help choose a vintage and a bottle, and the guest designs the label.

The inn’s history page says the winery has produced more than 150,000 bottles. In a 2017 interview with the US Daily Review, Dischner said more than 60 different wines had been released so far. He also said a first satellite tasting room was open in Greeley, and a second was planned for Littleton by the end of that year.

Murder at the wine bar

The inn schedules murder mystery dinners in the spring, near Halloween, and on New Year’s Eve. About ten days before the event, each guest is mailed a dossier with background on every character, costume tips, and the theme. The evening opens with a social hour in the wine bar, everyone in costume. Dinner follows, and then the murder. In the Red Book’s words, the case is worked “with the help of the inspector and investigation by the surefooted Stratton Police Department.” The night ends with dessert, coffee, and the winery’s ports.

The inn’s team leads the cooking classes under Dave Dischner’s favorite quote: “The best definition of gourmet is simple things done well.” The standing chef’s tip is “Taste, taste, taste – often to know what is going on in the dish.” Fall classes cover soups and stews, baking, and desserts, and the year ends with make-ahead holiday menus. The calendar for fall 2026 lists:

• a croissant and puff pastry workshop on October 10
• “A Make-Ahead Dinner Party,” inspired by Ina Garten, on October 24
• a Halloween Murder Mystery on October 31
• “Holiday Entertaining Fun” on November 7

There is also a Winery Mystery Escape Room. Teams of two to ten are locked in with one hour on the clock, and afterward they meet in the tasting room. In the pottery studio, guests paint ceramic or stoneware pieces. The inn fires them in its own kiln and ships them home.

A pasture won at poker

The inn’s history page says that thirty years before it was written, the site was an empty pasture with “nary a single tree.” The story behind it reaches back to 1920. That year Dave Dischner’s grandfather moved his young family to Stratton and opened a grocery and general store. Dave’s father grew up in the store, and so did Dave. The family owned the grocery for more than 82 years before selling it. The page says the grocery operating in Stratton today is a legacy of that business. When guests ask why he built the inn where he did, Dischner’s usual answer is “I was from here… so I didn’t know any better…”

After college he opened other businesses in the area. In his 2017 account, he came back to Stratton in 1988 and bought a hotel and restaurant. After a full rehabilitation it reopened as a Best Western in 1989. He said watching what I-70 travelers liked, and what they wanted changed, “was the beginning of the dream to build the Claremont Inn.” The history page adds that he had worked in the hotel and restaurant business in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.

In 1993 the owner of five acres beside the interstate approached him. That man claimed to have won the land in a poker game at the Stratton Legion Hall. It was pheasant season, when out-of-town hunters came for the weekend and the card games could turn serious. Dischner acquired the property, but only after what the inn calls “a careful title search.”

He had spent a summer in Europe in high school. When he saw plans for an Italian Palladian house, the history page says, “it had to happen.” The grounds were reshaped so the three-story front would face the highway, and 360 trees were planted. Mostly local contractors who had worked with him before finished the building in 13 months. The Claremont Inn, as it was then called, took its first guests in September 1995.

An early Denver Post column by Doris Kennedy named Dave and Sharon Dischner as the innkeepers and counted seven guest rooms. She described an entry of Italian marble and black granite and a Great Hall overlooked by a second-floor gallery. Its gas-log fireplace was crowned by a 20-foot mirror. Downstairs were a theatre with burgundy armchairs and free microwave popcorn, and a wine cellar lined with racks. Fine dining was offered only on Saturday evenings, by reservation. Kennedy reported that Dave had trained at the “Provence in 3 Dimensions” school in France, the Cooking School of the Rockies, and Peter Kump’s School of Culinary Arts in New York. He also ran three Cooking For Life stores around Denver.

Dischner said the first guests were mostly travelers going to and from Colorado, many from Kansas and Missouri. Murder mysteries, cooking classes, and special dinners came later, to build what he called a destination business. The sources disagree on when the winery came:

| Source | Year given | Detail | |---|---|---| | Inn’s history page | 2011 | Winery added | | Inn’s wine page | October 2011 | Became a legal winery; first wines sampled that November, about a dozen released by December | | Inn’s 2024 Red Book | October 2012 | Same account as the wine page, with the later year | | Colorado Wine listing | Fall 2012 | Launched “after 28 years” of hosting guests | | Dischner, 2017 interview | 2012 | Winery added |

In that 2017 interview, Dischner said the winery drew “a lot more younger guests.”

The 2024 Red Book marks the inn’s 30th year. It is signed “Dave & Harry—Owners.” The 2017 interview names Harry Jones as Dischner’s partner and co-owner. The same page lists “Brad & Alex—Managing Innkeepers,” and the history page says Brad and Alex Lovesee “are working hard to learn the business and take it to new heights.”