Gehringer Brothers celebrate 40th anniversary

Photo: Brendon Gehringer: third generation in the winery

Gehringer Brothers Winery is marking its 40th anniversary with the release of wines from the 2025 vintage, one of the finest in the Okanagan. Even rarer than the winery’s longevity is that it is still operated by the founding Gehringer family.

That was not a sure thing when I wrote the second edition of The Wineries of British Columbia in 2009. Walter Gehringer, one of the second generation team of brothers, told me that if his son, Brendon, did not want to continue in the business, the brothers would sell the winery and retire. I continued:

“Surely, he’s not really serious, since he and Gordon run a business started for them by their own parents. The Gehringer family bought this vineyard property in 1981 specifically to create the winery for the brothers. Walter, born in Oliver in 1955, had graduated in 1978 from the wine school at Geisenheim in Germany (the first Canadian graduate) and was honing his craft at the Andrés in Port Moody. Gordon, four years younger, was just completing studies at Weinsberg, another German wine school. Their father, Helmut, said he would run the vineyard for a couple of years until the boys took over. “He never left,” Walter says. “Helmut came to the Okanagan from Germany in 1952, becoming a car dealer. His brother, Karl, soon followed him and ran the resort at Cathedral Lakes. When Gordon and Walter went to Germany to become winemakers, Helmut and Karl undertook a seven-year study of the climate in the south Okanagan before the 1981 purchase of the south half of what is now the 26-hectare (65-acre) Gehringer property. The north half, now called the Dry Rock Vineyard, was acquired in 1995. The property is on a plateau on the Golden Mile side of the Okanagan Valley, south of Oliver. “On the original parcel, hybrid grapes were replaced with premium German whites, including Riesling, Auxerrois, Ehrenfelser, Gewürztraminer and Schönburger, in part because they believed these to be winter-hardy. Winters were colder in the 1980s. They routinely covered young vines with sawdust as protection against the winter cold - and even that was not enough to safeguard their first planting of Pinot Gris. “Nobody has to bury a vineyard in its first year anymore,” Walter says now. “The winters are warmer.” “When the winery first opened, the brothers followed an unabashedly German winemaking style, complete with baroquely scripted labels. Off-dry whites suited the tastes of British Columbia consumers. As tastes changed in the 1990s, the winery responded with drier wines, including dry reds when Dry Rock’s vines began producing. Because they perceived that the climate was warming, the Gehringers planted entirely different grape varieties in Dry Rock, including Chardonnay, which they had spurned initially because it is not a German wine grape. They also planted Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon - all mainstays of French winemaking. It was “a definite change in direction from where we initially were, allowing us to round out our winemaking style, rather than just making Germanic whites,” Walter says. “We’ve evolved to make wines for certain wine styles, so that I can pretty well boast a wine for anybody’s palate.”

In that book, I speculated correctly that Brendon would stay in the family business. While his father and his uncle Gordon had both received their winemaker training in Germany, Brendon elected to go to Australia for his schooling. That led to a lengthy stay there before he returned to the family business in the summer of 2023.

“I was prepared to go to Germany,” he says. “My German is good enough for me to get by. But there were a number of newer winemakers coming to the valley that are of Australian background or Australian-trained. The discussion was that if I went to Germany, I would learn something similar to what we already know. Going to Australia would give us a different perspective.” And that is what is turning out. Brendon aims to get the winery’s first barrel program started by the 2028 vintage. Brendon enrolled in Adelaide University’s wine program in 2008. After university, he worked for a year or so at a small sparkling wine producer. Then he did a vintage with a large export-oriented winery in McLaren Vale. “It was not a place where I would have enjoyed working for a long term but it was a neat experience to see how larger wineries operate,” Brendon says.

From there he moved to Kellermeister Wines in the Barossa Valley late in 2014, working with owner Mark Pearse. The winery is smaller than Gehringer Brothers, producing about 8,000 cases a year. “It was a good job there, working for a smaller producer that was making some really good wine,” Brendon says. “Because it was a small facility, it was between me as the assistant winemaker, and the owner, Mark Pearse, who was senior winemaker. We essentially ran most of the show. It was good experience to see the full process from grapes to bottle and be personally involved in the whole aspect. I had grown up in a small winery where we had that same hands-on approach from grapes to bottle. I fitted in there quite well.”

However, there always was the pull of the family winery in the Okanagan even though Brendon had married an Australian woman and they had started a family. “It had gotten to the point where Claire and I were figuring out what our next plan should be,” Brendon recalls. “I enjoyed my job at Kellermeister but we had this opportunity to move back to Canada and the family business.” He worked for the winery online for several years until they moved to the Okanagan in 2003. As these 2025 whites show, Brendon is as good a winemaker as his award-winning father. “Here’s to 40 more of continuing craft, making wines grounded in place and guided by legacy,” the winery proclaims.

Gehringer Bros. Classic Riesling 2025 ($17.99). The fruit was fermented with selected yeast to develop the easy-going, aromatic style favoured by the winery. The wine has aromas and flavours of citrus and ripe pear. The finish is off-dry but very well balanced. 90.

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Red Rooster Winery is back

The architecturally-striking Red Rooster Winery, after taking a year off last year to replant its vineyard, is back with several well made wines. The winery has been a fixture on the Naramata Bench for more than a quarter of a century. It was opened in 1997 by Swiss immigrants Beat and Prudence Mahrer and operated from a modest set of buildings just off Naramata Road. The name was inspired by their pet rooster, sometimes kept in a coop beside the driveway to the winery.

Ambitious to have higher visibility, the Mahrers had architect Robert Mackenzie design a palatial set of buildings on a site right on Naramata Road. Then in 2005, they sold the winery to Andrew Peller Ltd. Four years later, when they found they missed the wine business, they opened Ruby Blues Winery just north of Red Rooster. Most summers, both parking lots have been jammed with tourists – at least until Red Rooster took a year off. It is good news that this attractive location has its tasting room open again. A quick look at the winery’s website discloses a variety of tasting experiences, sometimes as simple sitting in a chair with a glass of wine and enjoying the views.

Cameron Laverock, the Okanagan-born winemaker now in the cellar, graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2015 with a degree in microbiology. After a year with a craft brewery, he moved to winemaking for a year at Summerhill Estate Winery. In 2017, he moved into the Peller group, making wine at Gray Monk Estate Winery and now also at Red Rooster. He is making some excellent wines. Here are notes on three.

Red Rooster Pinot Gris 2025 ($24). This is a delicious wine beginning with aromas of apples and stone fruits. The luscious flavours deliver peaches and ripe pears with a finish that is crisp, clean and persistent. 90.

Red Rooster Pinot 3 2025 ($22). This is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. This is as crisp and refreshing white wine, with aromas and flavours of apple, citrus and stone fruits. 90.

Red Rooster Pinot Noir 2025 ($26). This young red recalls exuberant Beaujolais. Dark in colour, it has spicy cherry aromas. The palate is full, delivering flavours of cherry and red plum. 91.

Moon Curser: Confiscated and friends

Photo: Harjit, Gurjit and Sukhi Harjit Dhaliwal

The current releases from Moon Curser Vineyards in Osoyoos include several wines labelled as “confiscated.” This is a cheeky reference to the Washington state grapes the winery bought after the severe January 2024 freeze reduced Okanagan wine grape production to five per cent of normal. Designating wines which are quite good as confiscated is consistent with the spirit in which founders Chris and Beata Tolley changed the winery’s original name, Twisted Tree, to Moon Curser, with labels that shook up the winery’s previously staid image.

What really made the rebranding succeed was the quality and the originality of the wines. The Tolleys often planted varietals that were exclusive, or nearly so, to their vineyards. Examples included Tannat, an old French variety at home in Uruguay; Carménère, another old French red now at home in Chile; Touriga Nacional, a Portuguese red; and Arneis, a lovely Italian white grape. The result is that Moon Curser wines have been as individual as the labels.

In 2023, the Tolleys sold one of Moon Curser’s vineyards to Gurjit Dhaliwal, his wife Sukhi and his brother, Harjit. The brothers have been Okanagan grapegrowers since 2007 while Sukhi became a nurse. After they purchased the vineyard, they discovered that Chris and Beata, both nearing 60, were ready to retire. The Dhaliwals had been thinking of opening a winery and jumped at buying Moon Curser, an established producer with award-winning wines. The ownership change was announced in December 2024, in spite of a reduced production from Moon Curser’s vineyards due to the devastating January freeze. Vineyards around Osoyoos Lake suffered less than vineyards elsewhere in the Okanagan. While Tannat did not survive the freeze and will not be replanted, most of the other varietals made it.

The new owners took over an inventory that included the “Confiscated” wines, made after Chris and winemaker Christian Scagnetti augmented Moon Curser’s 2024 production by sourcing excellent grapes from Washington State. “It was not an easy decision,” general manager Crystal Coverdale writes, “but when we saw Rocky Pond Estate Winery has some Lake Chelan fruit that suited Moon Curser well, Chris and Christian did the two-hour drive to check it out.” That enabled them to flesh out 2024 production. Most of Moon Curser’s vineyards recovered in 2025. The white wines from that vintage are bright and expressive. Expect the reds to be very good, judging from Moon Curser’s 2025 Dolcetto, the best example of that Italian varietal I have tasted from the Okanagan.

So far, the 2026 vintage is progressing well. Hopefully, smoke taint will be avoided. Here are notes on the wines.

Moon Curser Riesling Confiscated 2024 ($25.99 for 690 cases). The fruit is from Lake Chelan in Washington. The grapes were transported to the Moon Curser winery in Osoyoos, where whole grapes were crushed and fermented cool in stainless steel. The wine has aromas and flavours of lemon and peach. A touch of residual sugar gives the wine a fullness on the palate. 88.

Moon Curser Confiscated Rosé 2024 ($26.99 for 473 cases). The fruit is Pinot Noir from Lake Chelan, given cool fermentation in stainless steel in the winery at Osoyoos. It begins with an inviting pink hue in the glass. It has aromas and flavours of strawberry and raspberry. The finish is juicy. 9o.

Moon Curser Marsanne 2025 ($26.99 for 151 cases). This is Moon Curser’s first Marsanne on its own. The winery writes: “Christian, our winemaker, followed his heart and his palate with this vintage of Marsanne, and bottled a single varietal wine of it, a first for Moon Curser.” The grapes were fermented cool in stainless steel, and aged in tank. It is a richly-textured wine with aromas of quince and vanilla. The palate delivers flavours of quince, pear, marmalade and almond. This is an age-worthy white with a long finish. 93.

Moon Curser Roussanne Marsanne 2025 ($28.99 for 279 cases). This is a classic Rhône blend: 79% Roussanne and 21% Marsanne. The grapes were fermented cool in stainless steel tanks, with the wine aging in stainless steel. This is a full-bodied wine, rich and complex on the palate. It begins with aromas of spice and tropical fruits. That is echoed on the palate, along with baked apple and vanilla. 92.

Moon Curser Viognier 2025 ($25.99 for 421 cases). The wine was fermented cool and aged in stainless steel. In the glass, there are dramatic aromas of mango and pineapple. The luscious texture delivers a cornucopia of fruit flavours, including mango, pineapple, peach and apricot. 93.

Moon Curser Dead of Night 2022 ($46.99 for 661 cases). Moon Curser’s flagship red wine, this is a blend of 50% Tannat and 50% Syrah. This has always been a wine with power – even more so in a great vintage like 2022. Partially co-fermented in stainless steel, the wine was aged 12 months in French and Hungarian oak (35% new). Dark in colour, the wine begins with aromas of dark fruits and coffee. The palate delivers flavours of dark cherry, black currant and plum mingled with oak. This wine will benefit from decanting and will age far into the future. 94.

Moon Curser Confiscated Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 ($46.99 for 446 cases). The winery supplemented the diminished harvest of this varietal in the Okanagan with fruit from Lake Chelan. The wine was fermented in stainless steel and then aged 12 months in French oak (37% new). The wine is rich in texture. It begins with aromas of cassis, dark cherry and plum. The palate delivers flavours of dark cherry, chocolate and licorice. 92.

Moon Curser Confiscated Pinot Noir 2024 ($34.99 for 657 cases). The fruit is from a high-altitude vineyard near Lake Chelan. The grapes were fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged 12 months in French and American oak barrels (22% new), The wine begins with aromas of cherry and toasted oak, leading to flavours of cherry and strawberry. The tannins are long and silky. 88.

Moon Curser Border Vines 2022 ($34.99 for 1,547 cases). This is a blend of 35% Petit Verdot, 33% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon and 16% Cabernet Franc. Fermented in stainless steel, the wine was aged 12 months in French oak (25% new). The wine begins with spicy aromas of cherry and licorice, leading to a rich palate with flavours of dark fruits mingled with chocolate. 92.

Moon Curser Carménère 2022 ($46.99 for 519 cases). This wine was aged 12 months in French oak (20% new). It begins with aromas of plum and cranberry mingled with notes of black pepper. The medium-bodied palate echoes the pepper, along with flavours of dark cherry. The finish persists. 94.

Moon Curser Diversion 2024 ($38.99 for 428 cases). The blend of this wine is 46% Cabernet Franc, 34% Syrah and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, all from vineyards near Osoyoos Lake. (Lake effect moderated the 2024 freeze, allowing the vines to produce some fruit in that vintage.) The wine was aged 12 months in French oak (28% new). In the glass, there are aromas of cherry and plum with a hint of oak. The medium-bodied palate delivers flavours of black cherry, blackberry, tobacco and black olive. 91.

Moon Curser Dolcetto 2025 ($30.99 for 681 cases). This is an impressive example of a rarely seen (from the Okanagan) Italian varietal. Aromas of plum and red cherry jump from the glass leading to bold flavours of cherry, plum and pomegranate. The texture is rich and juicy. 92.

Moon Curser Syrah 2022 ($34.99 for 883 cases). The grapes were fermented in stainless steel and aged 24 months in French and Hungarian oak (28% new). The winery released an impressive 2022 Syrah last year with just 12 months of barrel age. Clearly, a portion of that vintage was held back for longer aging. The wine is more polished, with aromas of dark cherry, fig and spice. On the palate, dark fruits mingled with blueberry, spice and a hint of pepper 92.

Moon Curser Contraband Syrah 2024 ($46.99 for 118 cases). This wine was made with Okanagan fruit. The grapes were fermented warm in stainless steel. The wine was aged 24 months in French oak (40% new), as well as Hungarian and neutral barrels. In the glass, the wine is dark with powerful aromas of stewed plum, fig and dark cherry. There is also the varietal’s classic hint of pepper. There is lots of pepper on the palate along with flavours of dark fruits. 91.

Moon Curser Touriga Nacional 2022 ($46.99 for 393 cases). This is a Portuguese varietal. In the Okanagan, Moon Curser is believed to be the only producer. The grapes were fermented in stainless steel and the wine was aged 12 months in French oak (25% new). Dark in colour, the wine has intriguing aromas of cherry and plum mingled with blueberry and tobacco. All that is echoed on the savoury palate, along with notes of black olive and a suggestion of pepper. The finish is long. 94.