Sweet Heart Wine & Cider Coming to RainDance in Windsor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sweet Heart Wine & Cider Coming to RainDance in Windsor

The Water Valley Company and nationally recognized Sweet Heart Winery partner to create a wine, cider, restaurant, event venue and community gathering place experience in Windsor

WINDSOR, CO. — September 8, 2026 — The Water Valley Company and Sweet Heart Brands today announced plans to bring Sweet Heart Wine & Cider at RainDance to the former Ted’s property at the gateway to RainDance.

The property, featuring exceptional indoor and outdoor hospitality space, will become a wine, cider, restaurant, event venue and community gathering place serving RainDance, Water Valley, Windsor and the broader Northern Colorado community.

For Sweet Heart Brands, the expansion represents the next chapter of a company whose roots remain firmly planted in Loveland. The company’s original West Highway 34 location will continue as Sweet Heart Winery, its flagship winery and destination, while Sweet Heart Wine & Cider in RainDance will become the moniker for its expanding hospitality footprint outside the Loveland winery.

Sweet Heart Winery’s West Highway 34 property will remain the company’s flagship winery and destination, while its growing wine and cider production operations are located inside the City of Loveland at The Forge campus. Sweet Heart’s ownership/operator team lives within minutes of the Highway 34 winery and has built strong partnerships with the City of Loveland, Larimer County and the broader Loveland community. Sweet Heart was honored in 2025 as Loveland's Small Business of the Year.

“Loveland is home,” said Charles Oster, CEO of Sweet Heart Brands. “Our family lives here, our flagship winery is here, our production is here, and our relationships with the City, the County and this community are incredibly important to us. RainDance isn’t a move away from Loveland. It’s a result of what Loveland helped us become.”

As Sweet Heart’s reputation has grown and more guests discover the winery from across Colorado and around the country, Oster said expansion has also become important to protecting the experience guests have helped create in Loveland.

“There is something really beautiful that our guests, our team and the Loveland community have built together, and we want to protect it,” Oster said. “As more people discover Sweet Heart, space becomes a real consideration. Growth shouldn’t mean squeezing more and more people into one property. It should allow us to welcome more people into Sweet Heart while continuing to invest in and preserve the experience that made people fall in love with our Loveland winery in the first place.”

Oster said additional Northern Colorado locations can ultimately strengthen the Loveland flagship by introducing Sweet Heart to new audiences while providing more capacity across the organization.

“If we do this right, RainDance makes Loveland stronger,” Oster said. “It gives us room to grow while protecting the place that started it all.”

Sweet Heart has become one of Northern Colorado’s most recognized hospitality brands. Sweet Heart Winery was named one of the Top 10 Wineries in the United States by The Scout Guide in 2025 and received national recognition again in 2026. Over the weekend, WineryAtlas, a national winery discovery and data platform tracking nearly 15,000 wineries named Sweet Heart as the #1 winery in Colorado. The company has expanded its Northern Colorado footprint through Tesoro, a tasting room in Fort Collins, its Loveland wine and cider production operations called "The Cellar", events business and a growing portfolio of locally produced hard-cider brands.

The RainDance partnership brings Sweet Heart together with another organization deeply rooted in Northern Colorado.

Martin Lind and The Water Valley Company have spent decades creating some of Windsor’s most distinctive residential, recreational and hospitality environments, including Water Valley, RainDance and RainDance National Resort & Golf.

“This property has always had special meaning to us, and RainDance deserves something truly special here,” said Martin Lind, founder of The Water Valley Company. “We weren’t looking for just another restaurant. We wanted the right concept and the right operator—something distinctive with the hospitality, reputation and staying power to become part of the fabric of this community. We hand-selected Sweet Heart because we believe they are that partner. Windsor deserves an experience of this caliber, and we’re incredibly pleased to bring one of America’s top wineries to RainDance.”

Sweet Heart Wine & Cider at RainDance

The new location will bring Sweet Heart’s established wine-country hospitality model to Windsor while creating an experience specifically designed around the RainDance lifestyle.

The wine program will feature the philosophy that has helped define Sweet Heart:

Selected in California. Perfected in Colorado.™

Sweet Heart selects wines and grapes from acclaimed California growing regions and completes its winemaking craft in Northern Colorado.

At RainDance, that nationally recognized wine program will stand alongside another increasingly important part of Sweet Heart Brands: its locally produced hard cider.

Wine and cider will receive equal billing in the new concept.

“The deeper we got into RainDance, the more obvious the fit became,” Oster said. “We already have an incredibly strong Sweet Heart customer and member community in Windsor and Weld County. Combine that with this property, the surrounding community and what Martin has created here, and it became clear very quickly that this was the right next move for Sweet Heart.”

“We don’t see this as another tasting room,” Oster continued. “We’re creating Sweet Heart Wine & Cider at RainDance—bringing together our wines, our cider brands, food, events and hospitality in one extraordinary environment. We believe it can become the living room of RainDance.”

A Flagship Home for Northern Colorado Hard Cider

RainDance will become the flagship taproom and consumer showcase for Sweet Heart Brands’ locally produced hard-cider portfolio, including Climb Hard Cider, Patriot Press American Hard Cider, Sweetheart Cider and Black Bear Cider.

Guests will be able to experience the brands through cider flights, rotating taps, seasonal and experimental releases, food pairings and special events.

The location will also provide an important consumer-facing showcase as Sweet Heart expands its cider portfolio into wholesale distribution throughout the region.

“We’re serious about cider,” Oster said. “We’re building real cider brands with distinct identities and significant ambitions. RainDance gives those brands a flagship home—a place where people can experience them and then recognize and seek them out throughout Northern Colorado.”

The setting creates a particularly natural home for the concept. RainDance was developed around Northern Colorado’s agricultural heritage, incorporating farmland, orchards, trails, water, recreation and gathering spaces throughout the community.

An apple orchard adjacent to Sweet Heart Wine & Cider provides a striking backdrop for the locally produced hard-cider experience. While this orchard is not used as supply for its ciders, the symbolism is striking.

“It’s hard to imagine a better setting for what we’re building,” Oster said. “We’re fermenting and crafting hard cider right here in Northern Colorado, and now we’ll have our flagship cider brandroom sitting alongside an apple orchard in this incredible agricultural landscape.”

More Than a Restaurant

Sweet Heart Wine & Cider at RainDance is being designed as much more than another restaurant or tasting room.

The property features exceptional indoor and outdoor spaces, a full commercial kitchen, bar infrastructure, gathering and event areas, and access to the beautiful landscaping, water, orchard and recreational amenities that have become signatures of RainDance.

The concept will combine wine, cider, food, weekend brunch, live music, wine and cider releases, private celebrations, corporate gatherings and community events.

“Sweet Heart’s mission is to create experiences for people to connect,” Oster said. “When you look at what Martin and his team have spent decades creating at Water Valley and RainDance, there is incredible alignment. These are communities designed around experiences and connection. Our job is to create a place worthy of that.”

Golf carts and low-speed vehicles have become part of the lifestyle connecting neighborhoods, golf, recreation, restaurants and amenities throughout the area—giving RainDance a distinctly different role within the Sweet Heart network.

Loveland remains the flagship destination. Tesoro creates discovery in Old Town Fort Collins. RainDance can become part of everyday life.

“We want people to golf-cart over after a round, meet their neighbors for dinner, stop in for a glass of wine or locally made cider, bring family for brunch or come hear music on a beautiful evening,” Oster said. “The goal isn’t simply to build a successful restaurant. The goal is to become part of the rhythm of the community.”

A Family Connection to Windsor and RainDance

For the Sweet Heart ownership team, the connection to Windsor and RainDance is also personal.

Members of the ownership team have deep roots in Windsor, and members of the family’s next generation have chosen RainDance as home.

Rob Larson, Partner and Head of Operations for Sweet Heart Brands, and his wife, Tammie, who now live minutes away from the Loveland winery, raised their family in Windsor.

“We love Windsor. We raised our family here,” Larson said. “We just welcomed our first grandbaby into the family, and our next generation is making RainDance home. That makes this more than another business location for us. We care deeply about this community and about making sure Sweet Heart Wine & Cider at RainDance is something Windsor and RainDance can be proud of for a very long time.”

Oster and his wife, Farah, are also preparing to welcome their first grandchild, further underscoring the family and generational perspective the ownership group brings to the project.

Megan Nickelson, Oster’s daughter and a member of the Sweet Heart Brands marketing team, represents the next generation of the family business and will be involved in helping tell the story of Sweet Heart’s continued growth across Northern Colorado. Megan and her husband, Matt also live in RainDance and are expecting their first child this month.

Looking Ahead

The relationship between The Water Valley Company and Sweet Heart Brands may ultimately extend beyond RainDance.

Oster and his team are excited to explore potential opportunities with the Colorado Eagles and other parts of the broader Water Valley ecosystem as the relationship develops.

“There is a much bigger Northern Colorado opportunity here,” Oster said. “Martin and his team have created extraordinary communities, golf, sports and entertainment experiences. Sweet Heart has built wine, cider, hospitality and events. Bringing those worlds together opens up some very exciting possibilities.”

At its core, however, the partnership is rooted in a shared belief about hospitality and community.

“We have spent decades creating places where people want to live, gather and make memories,” Lind said. “Sweet Heart understands that philosophy. They have built their reputation by creating experiences around wine and hospitality, not simply selling a product. That’s why we believe this is such a natural fit for RainDance.”

Oster sees the partnership similarly.

“We don’t think this is simply a good fit,” Oster said. “We believe it may be the perfect fit. Two Northern Colorado organizations that care deeply about hospitality, community and creating extraordinary experiences are coming together in an extraordinary place. We’re incredibly excited about what we can build here.”

Coming to RainDance

Sweet Heart Brands and The Water Valley Company have finalized definitive agreements and are now working on operational details for the new location.

Additional information regarding opening timing, hiring, menus, wine and cider offerings, events and community programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

“This is an important next chapter for Sweet Heart Brands,” Oster said. “We’re bringing everything we’ve learned about wine, cider, food, events and connection into one remarkable property. We’re excited to be coming to Windsor, excited to be part of RainDance and excited to build something this community can be proud to call its own.”

About Sweet Heart Brands

Sweet Heart Brands is a Northern Colorado wine, cider, hospitality and experiential company rooted in Loveland, Colorado, and anchored by nationally recognized Sweet Heart Winery on West Highway 34.

Sweet Heart Winery was named a Top 10 Winery in the United States by The Scout Guide in 2025 and received national recognition again in 2026 in addition to many other local and regional distinctions such as being named Colorado's #1 winery by WineryAtlas.

The company’s Loveland operations include its flagship destination winery and its wine and cider production operations. Its growing Northern Colorado portfolio encompasses wine, locally produced hard cider, hospitality, events and wholesale distribution, all guided by one mission:

Create experiences for people to connect.

About The Water Valley Company

Founded in Windsor by Martin and Viki Lind, The Water Valley Company has spent decades creating residential communities, golf, recreation, hospitality and entertainment experiences across Northern Colorado. Its portfolio includes Water Valley, RainDance, RainDance National Resort & Golf and other prominent Northern Colorado projects.

For media inquiries, contact: Megan Nickelson megan@sweetheartbrands.com www.sweetheartwinery.com