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A controversy over spirits in Orchard City has prompted a winery to follow the proverbial advice to “make lemonade from lemons.” But in this case, the Surface Creek Winery is making wine out of sour grapes.

The winery has been fighting town officials who are attempting to stop the sale of wine in a town that voted nearly 40 years ago to prohibit the sale of any alcohol but packaged 3.2-percent beer.

A vote to change the town from dry to wet is coming up Nov. 1. In the meantime, winery owners Jim and Jeanne Durr are injecting some humor – and a bit of campaign propaganda – into the legal wranglings by creating a white wine called Orchard City Dry.

The wine is going to be advertised with signs that read “Do your part to drink Orchard City Dry” and “Is Orchard City a dry town or a dry wine?” It will sell for $19.66 – the year the town voted to go dry. But the Durrs are giving a $7 discount, a buck for each year they’ve been in business. The Durrs are also creating T-shirts and buttons with the Orchard City Dry theme.

“It’s sort of wacky, but when you think about how Orchard City government has acted through this whole thing, we thought, ‘Why not?”‘ Jim Durr said.

The Orchard City alcohol controversy began in March when town officials informed the Durrs that a 1966 ordinance, which had inadvertently been left out of a reorganized town code in 1994, prohibited them from selling their wine in Orchard City. It turned out the 1966 regulations were still in effect because town officials had forgotten to officially adopt the revamped codes.

Under the 1966 code, the Durrs could manufacture their wine, give out free tastes and ship it to buyers outside Orchard City. But they couldn’t sell a glass or bottle in their winery.

City Manager Ike Holland blames the Colorado Division of Liquor/Tobacco Enforcement for approving a license in Orchard City without checking the city’s codes. But he admits it may have been difficult to do: Orchard City is actually an amalgam of three small towns banded together in a water district about 50 miles southeast of Grand Junction. It has no ZIP code.

He also blames Jim Durr for not getting something in writing when he went to city hall to ask about opening a winery. Durr counters that town officials had 30 days to object to his application but didn’t. He didn’t hear an objection for nearly six years.

Holland said the city is hoping the wet ordinance will pass.”We want wineries and growers to prosper. We want to become more a part of wine country,” Holland said.

No one is predicting what the 1,200 registered voters will do. Historic records show the town was created by several men meeting over a $1 bottle of whiskey in a long-gone saloon. But in 1966 a Presbyterian minister persuaded his parishioners to start a petition to outlaw liquor sales. Voters embraced the idea.

The vote to undo that will affect more than the Durrs’ winery. Kevin Doyle, owner of the Woody Creek Winery, a small-scale operation that turns out hand-crafted wines from an abandoned apple shed in Austin – which, along with Cory and Eckert, makes up Orchard City – is also anxiously awaiting the vote.

“I certainly hope it passes,” Doyle said. “I do not have a tasting room, but if somebody pulls up to my winery wanting wine, I would sell wine.”

Holland said two Orchard City grape growers are interested in obtaining winery licenses if the ordinance passes. He said there has also been interest in starting liquor stores or bars.

For now, imbibers can continue to buy wine at Surface Creek Winery. In fact, Durr said, the controversy has doubled sales and increased tasting- room visits, and he expects Orchard City Dry to pump up sales even more.

Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.