Top Wine Picks! Moon Curser Vineyards

I won’t go into great detail about Moon Curser Vineyards in general – for that, you can tune in to the blog again tomorrow for Jake’s Canadian Winery Spotlight on the Osoyoos winery.

Also, Moon Curser Vineyards is part of our FREE SHIPPING series this week when you purchase six or more bottles. This offer is only around until Sunday, August 30, at midnight. Choose your bottles, and then enter the code FREE15 at check out to get these tasty wines delivered for free!

Here are three of my top wine picks from the always-cool – but only figuratively – it’s bloody hot down there in the south Okanagan – B.C. winery. You can tell just how hot things get down there based on the grape varieties Moon Curser has chosen to work with!

1) Moon Curser 2012 Contraband Syrah

Sourced from three Osoyoos East Bench vineyards, each of Moon Curser’s Syrah gatherings was fermented in 500-litre fermenters, underwent malolactic fermentation and then was separately aged in barriques before being blended in February 2014. There’s loads of ripe fruit on the nose – raspberry, cherry, plum and fresh black grapes – as well as some vanilla and black licorice notes. It’s a full-bodied, juicy red, with some green/leafy verve to counterbalance the plush fruit and some light acidity and peppery tannins to finish things off. ($32.00, 14.1% alcohol)

2) Moon Curser 2012 Dead of Night (red blend)

A 50-50 blend of Tannat and Syrah, there’s certainly plenty of depth of colour to this inky-black red wine. Plum, blueberry, black cherry and vanilla notes dominate on the nose of this intense red; on the full-bodied palate the dark berry notes work splendidly with black tea, licorice and modest leafy notes as well as firm tannins. A gold-medal winner at WineAlign’s recent 2015 National Wine Awards of Canada. ($42.00, 14.3% alcohol)

3)  Moon Curser 2013 Afraid of the Dark

Prefer something a little less tooth-staining? Moon Curser’s Rhône Valley-style white wine is a blend of Roussanne, Viognier and Marsanne fermented all in stainless steel tanks, retaining that fresh fruit vibe of peach, apricot, ripe red apple and tangerine as well as hints of spice and marmalade on the medium-plus bodied, incredibly viscous palate. ($21.90, 14.1% alcohol)

 

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson is the wine columnist and literary editor for the Winnipeg Free Press. He’s on Twitter and Instagram at @bensigurdson.