Wine Tasting at Home – Moon Curser Vineyards

Moon Curser Origins
Moon Curser gets its name from an old story of the procession of gold-smuggling miners who returned to the United States by the hundreds, if not by the thousands. They did it from the winery region of Osoyoos under the cover of night. All of them trying to avoid customs agents at all cost. Often, the light of the moon would interrupt their plans, shedding light onto their travels and illegal activities.

Moon Curser Vineyards
Moon Curser’s three vineyards are on the highly desirable Osoyoos East Bench. Their six acre homestead vineyard was planted in 2005 and is now in its seventh growth. Six rather unique varietals are planted on the homestead lands: Tannat, Tempranillo, Carmenere, Viognier, Roussanne and Marsanne. The Stubbs Vineyard, which they lease, is another three acres. It was planted in 2006 with Roussanne, Marsanne and Syrah. They also buy small quantities of fruit for their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Martin Plut on the west side of the lake.

Moon Curser Tempranillo
On our trip through the Okanagan wineries last spring Moon Curser was one of the wineries we visited. I remember thinking it didn’t look impressive from the road but inside the wine shop was excellent. We were also impressed with the creativity of their bottle labels and their friendly and knowledgeable tasting room staff.

Last week we cracked their 2011 Tempranillo. The wine is made from 100% Tempranillo grapes now in their eighth season. It is aged in all American barrels of which 20% are brand new. This was a bit of a dry red wine. The aromas include cherry and vanilla. The taste added hints of black pepper, further cherries and a bit of a cedar taste. It is a good wine with rich and strong flavours. At $29.00 per bottle we enjoyed it but at that price we will look for some others before coming back to this one!

Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs on their website, one is their 19th Hole Blog where they share personal experiences and the Biz Blog where they share business best practices and golf industry related opinions. They have owned CK Golf Solutions for 6+ years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries.