News

The Vancouver Sun - Anthony Gismondi: Looking back at notable wine world events in 2019

"Today we look back on 2019, a year in which American wine critic Robert Parker officially retired from the wine business.

Parker was a tireless taster, and his newsletter The Wine Advocate was the gold standard of wine criticism. You might say he was the perfect guy at the ideal time to be writing about quality wines and their producers.

There are other voices today, but none compare to Parker and his global impact on the wine, and it is unlikely he will be replaced in the age of social media where it seems everybody is an expert.

Closer to home, two British Columbia wineries shone at the National Wine Awards of Canada in 2019. Mission Hill Family Estate won the coveted Canadian Winery of the Year award on the strength of 18 medals, eight of which belong to its Terroir Collection introduced to highlight single vineyard sites in the Okanagan Valley. [Osoyoos]-based Moon Curser Vineyards earned the Best Performing Small Winery (under 10,000 cases) grabbing one platinum and six gold medals.

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The Calgary Herald - Find out what's new in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley in 2020

"Sure, there are long-established wineries, but they are all constantly evolving. New tasting rooms, events, wines, beer, restaurants and even art — there is always something fresh to discover in the valley.

Here’s a look at some of the cool new happenings in the Okanagan Valley in 2020.

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A winery with a guest house

For a wine lover, staying at a winery can be a magical experience. This past year, the team at Moon Curser Vineyards opened The Hideout Guest House, a luxurious three-bedroom, two-bathroom suite at the winery, located near Osoyoos. The well-appointed kitchen lets you prepare your own meals and, afterward, you enjoy your meal on the patio, which overlooks the vineyards and lake. Just add a bottle or two of Moon Curser wine to complete your stay in paradise.

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TheWineDiva.ca/WineScores.ca - TOP 50: 2019 - Touriga Nacional 2017 - 93 Points

"Moon Curser Touriga Nacional, Okanagan Valley BC

93 Points

Region: Okanagan Valley Oliver / Osoyoos
Vintage: 2017
Winery: $40.0 limited release
BC CSPC: BC CSPC Code -30841

 

WineDiva's Review

Levity, complexity, singular.
One of Portugal's darling varieties, Touriga is a rare find outside of the Iberian borders.
Moon Curser's version outstanding; sour cherries and rhubarb, sweet and savoury spices, strawberry compote and tealeaf, leather and iodine aromas dominate the nose. The palate is fresh and juicy yet supple and classic. A delicious red with good persistent and lingering white pepper on the finish.

 

Recommended Pairings
Rich Meats , Cheese - Hard/Aged, Cellar Keepers"

 

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TheWineDiva.ca/WineScores.ca - Border Vines '17 - 92 Points, Dead of Night '17 - 92 Points, Petit Verdot '17 - 90 Points

"Moon Curser 'Border Vines' Okanagan Valley BC
92 Points

Region: Okanagan Valley Oliver / Osoyoos
Vintage: 2017
AB: $26.0 +price will vary
BC Private Wine Stores: $26.0 +price will vary
SK: $26.0 +price will vary
Winery: $25.99
BC CSPC: BC CSPC Code -783936

 

WineScores' Review

Savoury, expressivet, chewy.
The Border Vines is Moon Curser's Meritage or Bordeaux cuvee: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Malbec and Petit Verdot.
A pretty red, it expresses bold purple berries, violets and vanilla, sarsaparilla and mocha with hints of wet cedar. The palate is juicy with chewy tannins, plenty of appealing fruit and a lengthy cedary finish.
Decant before serving and pair with grilled meat, hearty bean stews or aged, hard cheeses.
 
Recommended Pairings
Rich Meats , Barbeque, French Food

To view review click here

 

Moon Curser 'Dead of Night', Okanagan Valley BC
92 Points

Region: Okanagan Valley Oliver / Osoyoos
Vintage: 2017
BC Private Wine Stores: $40.0 + price will vary
Winery: $40.0
BC CSPC: BC CSPC Code -806117

 

WineScores' Review

Fragrant, succulent, complete.
Dead of Nightis a blend of Tannat (Madiran's tannic red variety) and Syrah, both from the South Okanagan.
It is a fragrant red, redolent with sweet cherries and baking spices, plum jam and violets, sarsaparilla and mocha. Fresh and balanced, savoury yet sweet; it has a spicy cocoa and espresso finish
 
Recommended Pairings
Rich Meats , Barbeque, Game Day Wines

To view review click here

 

Moon Curser Petit Verdot, Okanagan Valley BC
90 Points

Region: Okanagan Valley Oliver / Osoyoos
Vintage: 2017
Winery: $31.0 winery only
BC CSPC: BC CSPC Code -20982
 

WineScores' Review

Fresh, firm, grippy.
This Osoyoos-based winery continues to produce a unique assortment of great wine and win kudos for them.
The Petit Verdot is inky and always laden with purple berries as well as violets, vanilla, baking spice, espresso and licorice. The palate is fresh on the entry and grows more powerful into the mid-palate; firm and chocolaty with expressive fruit and a grippy finish.
 
Recommended Pairings
Rich Meats, Barbeque, Cheese - Hard/Aged"

To view review click here

iNwine - 8 sexy B.C. reds to sip by the fireside

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Here are 8 beautiful B.C. reds to get your snug on with:

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5. Moon Curser Vineyards – 2017 Dead of Night $39.99

Owners Beata and Chris Tolley planted Tannat in their Osoyoos East Bench Vineyard in 2005 and it was the first of its kind in Canada. Dead of Night is a blend of Tannat (a dark and tannic red grape, traditionally grown in the Madiran region of South West France) and Syrah. This is their flagship wine. Cellar for up to 10 years. The 2017 Dead of Night is a dry, medium to full-bodied red wine with deep ruby colour and nose of baking spices, chocolate and raspberries. The palate brings out characters of lavender, cherry, leather and cinnamon. The wine has fantastic structure; the silky and plush tannins provide the perfect underpinning for the lingering acidity and the generous savoury and floral notes. Pair with roasted lamb shanks or a scary movie like IT Chapter Two.

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Calgary Herald - Comfort wines for autumn and winter

"The early autumn snow brought a quick shift in our household.

The down duvets, warm wool sweaters and hearty stews made an early entrance. A lot sooner than hoped; but that’s life in Calgary.

The transition to cooler weather brings a wine switch for me as well. Bigger, beefier wines just seem to fit the fall mood better. Bigger reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Grenache, and full-bodied whites such as Viognier, Roussanne and Chardonnays with a bit of oak, come up from the cellar more often.

These types of wines work well with the richer foods we often enjoy in fall and winter — comfort foods. So I guess you could call these comfort wines. Pop the cork, twist the cap, and snuggle up with a full-bodied wine.

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Moon Curser Vineyards
2017
Border Vines
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Former Calgarians Beata and Chris Tolley have been pushing the boundaries at their small Osoyoos winery for several years, making wines from grape varieties not often found in British Columbia.

As Chris said during a recent visit to the winery: “There’s a lot of people doing great Merlot. Why would we want to out-Merlot someone when we could do something different.”

Looking at the pile of medals and awards they earned this year, other wineries might soon want to try Touriga Nacional, Tannat, Carmenere, Tempranillo and Petit Verdot as well.

Canada’s No. 2 winery and best performing small winery, according to the 2019 Wine Align National Wine Awards, Moon Curser makes traditional Okanagan wines as well, including Border Vines, a Bordeaux blend of 71 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon plus Petit Verdot, Malbec, Carmenere and Cabernet Franc. It’s dry, with lots of ripe dark fruit flavours, plus notes of violet, sage and leather.

Price: About $26. Check for it at Aspen Wine and Spirits, BK Liquor, Cloud 9 Liquor Store, Heritage Wine and Spirits, Highlander Wine and Spirits, Kensington Wine Market, Willow Park Wines & Spirits and Zyn the Wine Market.

Drink: In the next five years. A grilled steak would be a great match. Screw cap; 14.6 per cent alc./vol.

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The Globe and Mail - Skip the specialty bottles timed to Halloween in favour of these hauntingly good wines - Dead of Night 91 points

"If you’re planning a spooky soirée or simply looking to get in the Halloween spirit, now’s the time to put some “boo” in your booze. A quick scan of the aisles of your local liquor store should turn up a fair number of ghosts, skeletons, devils, witches and other fantastically ghoulish apparitions lurking on labels that are year-round selections.

Concha y Toro’s popular Casillero del Diablo (The Devil’s Locker) label is a great example. The story goes that in an effort to stop workers from drinking wines from his cellar, winery owner Don Melchor de Concha y Toro spread the rumour that the devil lived there. The affordable premium brand has expanded to include almost every grape grown in Chile, including malbec and syrah as well as the usual suspects cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. It’s long been a go-to for wine lovers across Canada.

For that reason, I’d pass on any specialty Halloween items available as limited releases. Bacardi Superior Halloween or Cuvée Mythique Halloween Edition red blend from the South of France might actually be bloody good, but those companies already make other products that don’t need a gimmick to garner a sale. Why not check those out instead?

It seems to reason the beverages you serve and enjoy on Halloween should be pleasurable any other night as well. That’s the gist for this week’s recommendations. They sport labels that fit in with Halloween’s spooky vibe, but the frights stop there. There’s nothing to fear about the aromas and flavours of these beverages. They’re crowd-pleasing party wines with a sinister aura about them.

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Moon Curser Dead of Night 2017 (Canada)

Score: 91 Price: $39.99

A distinctive blend of syrah and tannat grown in the southern Okanagan, this full-bodied and flavourful red is Moon Curser’s flagship label. It boasts terrific concentration and complexity, which makes for a cellar-worthy red should you be so inclined. Drink now to 2026. Available direct through mooncurser.com.

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Lake Country Calendar - B.C. wineries remain optimistic about quality of grape harvest

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In Osoyoos, where it’s much warmer than the rest of the valley, Chris Tolley, owner and winemaker at Moon Curser Vineyards said it was worrisome at first to see frost in September, but he is pleasently surprised with the harvest so far.

“We’ve had a very good season. Our whites, the Arneis and Viognier, were all quite ripe in both sugar and flavor. I’m happy so far with the reds as well. The Tempranillo came in really nice. I’m happy with the Malbec and Carmenere as well. We haven’t seen it all yet, but I’ve tasted the berries and I’m pleased with the quality.”

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The Vancouver Sun - Salut: Is diversity the long game in British Columbian wine?

"Demanding diversity in our wines and obtaining it are often two very different stories, especially in the New World.

As the years unfold, British Columbia wineries are finally moving in that direction although it’s not necessarily just about different grapes going into the ground. We see some unique offerings — especially among the white wines with Grüner Veltliner, Roussanne and Marsanne and a few reds like Dolcetto, Grenache, Touriga Nacional and Sangiovese — but the most significant change in diversity is coming from a different direction.

Achieving diversity is more about the blends, new grape clones, and mixing different sites to improve the ultimate complexity of the wine. It’s especially true as we reassess some early vineyard plantings, some of which never should have gone into the ground where they did.

Even when the site was ideal, there were problems with getting virus-free plant material, or the correct rootstock or clone. Post planting the viticulture and trellising are equally as crucial, because each can affect the quality and diversity of the wines.

Research and education have changed so much about what we know nowadays. Planting any grape in B.C. is about being on a suitable site for each variety. That could mean tracking the temperature, and studying a vineyard’s proximity to a lake or mountainside. It could be about altitude, daylight hours, irrigation and more. Alas, knowing more hasn’t necessarily given us all the answers and, in many cases, it has only generated more questions.

Growing wine on great sites is what many would say is the long game. The ultimate result will be a diversity of grapes and wines, but for now we are barely into the first period.

In this fall edition of Salut, we provide an update on where our red wines are heading in the diversity game. Sorting out the significant grapes is underway, and it is already much improved, but there are so many more to be assessed in the coming decades.

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Diverse British Columbia reds for fall

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Moon Curser Touriga Nacional 2017, Osoyoos, Okanagan Valley, $39.99

One of the celebrated platinum medal winners at the 2019 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada, and as diverse as it gets in B.C.

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Montecristo Magazine - Warm Up With Our Fall Wine Picks

"Moon Curser Tempranillo, 2017

Beata and Chris Tolley established South Okanagan’s Moon Curser Vineyards (originally named Twisted Tree Vineyards) on an old orchard in Osoyoos in 2004. Moon Curser refers to the border town’s history of gold smuggling: during the Gold Rush, miners would attempt midnight crossings hoping to avoid customs officers, however the brightness of the moon would often foil their plans for a clean getaway and, naturally, they would curse it. Now synonymous with making uniquely outstanding wines from varietals rarely or never seen elsewhere in Canada, Moon Curser’s 2017 tempranillo (a variety classic to Spain’s Rioja region) offers sweet vanilla, strawberries, tealeaf, and leather aromas. It is fresh and balanced and has a faintly spicy finish."

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