Guest to the Red Moose Winery are welcome to walk along its vineyard rows. The Leitners grow Cayuga and Chambourcin grapes as well as Missouri official grape the Norton.
A small lake borders the vineyard and offers visitors a stunning view. The Red Moose Winery is open for group events such as weddings and family reunions.
A natural spring exists at the bottom of Bates Hollow and provides the vineyard with fresh Ozark spring water for irrigation. The spring is scenic and open to the public.
The back porch of the tasting room offers a shady spot from which to take scenic views of rolling clouds or listen to the singing of the nearby songbirds.
Mark Leitner demonstrating how to squeeze the juice out of grapes using a basket press. Everything at the Red Moose Winery is done by hand in the artisan style.
Mark Leitner holding a freshly harvested vine of Norton grapes. The Red Moose Winery offers eight different wines made from three different kinds of grapes.
Crooked Creek is an impact crater in Crawford County, Missouri, United States. It is 7 km in diameter and the age is estimated to be 320 ± 80 million years. The crater is exposed to the surface. This is one of the 38th parallel structures.
The Red Moose Winery will be holding its grand opening 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. The winery is located on Highway VV about four miles north of Sligo off Highway 19.
Andrew Sheeley
The back porch of the tasting room offers a shady spot from which to take scenic views of rolling clouds or listen to the singing of the nearby songbirds.
Andrew Sheeley
The tasting room at the Red Moose Winery is decorated with pine harvested for the building’s construction.
Andrew Sheeley
Tasting room bar at the Red moose Winery.
Submitted
Red Moose Winery founders the Leitners. From left, Mark Leitner, Shirley Leitner and Kathy Leitner. Not Photographed: Steve Leitner.
Nestled in the sunny spring-fed pasture of Bates Hollow just outside Sligo is a blissful, bucolic escape named the Red Moose Winery.
Started as a family venture of the Leitners, the Red Moose Winery offers visitors eight varieties of hand-pressed wines produced in the classic artisan style and dedicated to creating friendships and spreading good times.
The Red Moose Winery will be holding its grand opening 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. The winery is located on Highway VV, about four miles north of Sligo off Highway 19.
Guest to the Red Moose Winery are welcome to walk along its vineyard rows. The Leitners grow Cayuga and Chambourcin grapes as well as Missouri official grape the Norton.
Andrew Sheeley
The grand opening will feature live acoustic music as well as plenty of wine tasting and snacks. The winery also offers Public House beer and welcomes visitors to pack a picnic for their visit. No outside beverages allowed.
The Red Moose features eight different wines, including reds and whites of the sweet, semi-sweet, dry categories. The vineyard cultivates Cayuga and Chambourcin grapes, as well as Missouri’s official state grape, the Norton. These wines can be sampled in the Red Moose’s brand new tasting room, which is ornamented with native pine harvested from the property during its construction. The wines are even aged in white oak barrels made from Missouri wood.
A small lake borders the vineyard and offers visitors a stunning view. The Red Moose Winery is open for group events such as weddings and family reunions.
Andrew Sheeley
The scenic views found on the grounds of the Red Moose Winery are as refreshing as its wines. Visitors will find shaded back porch seating overlooking the vineyard as well as a neighboring small picturesque lake and a short trail leading to a secluded freshwater spring at the bottom of the hollow.
A natural spring exists at the bottom of Bates Hollow and provides the vineyard with fresh Ozark spring water for irrigation. The spring is scenic and open to the public.
Andrew Sheeley
The winery takes its name from Mark Leitner and his brother Steve’s nicknames growing up. Steve was known as “Red” in homage to the red hair of his youth, while Mark came to be called “Moose” for reasons yet to be explained.
Although the grand opening will be Saturday, Mark and Steve, as well as their wives Shirley and Kathy, have worked since 2006 to make the Red Moose a reality.
Mark Leitner holding a freshly harvested vine of Norton grapes. The Red Moose Winery offers eight different wines made from three different kinds of grapes.
Submitted
“We started out by planting the grapes in April of 2006,” Mark explains. “It takes several years of growing before the vines are ready to produce. It started out that we wanted to buy a piece of property and grow some grapes for our own consumption as a hobby. Well pretty soon it got to become bigger, and after going to different wineries and seeing how other people did things we thought we could do that.”
The Red Moose is a testament to not only the Leitner’s love of quality wine but their hard work and pioneering spirit.
“Everything is done by hand,” says Kathy. “We pick the grapes by hand, and we have an old basket press where you have to place blocks and ratchet to get the juices out. We are also very picky in how we harvest grapes. We have our boys go through it and make sure they pick out the stems and any grapes that don’t look good.”
Mark Leitner demonstrating how to squeeze the juice out of grapes using a basket press. Everything at the Red Moose Winery is done by hand in the artisan style.
Andrew Sheeley
Over the past nine years, the Leitners have diligently worked to build the winery on weekends trips from St. Louis and Edwardsville, Illinois, only to drive back to work their regular jobs. All this work has been done as a family affair, with their children driving in from out of town during the harvest season. They also report receiving quite a bit of help from friends and neighbors eager to lend a hand.
“When we first bought the place there was nothing here but the power lines,” Mark says.
Kathy also can remember the first years before they had a water hook up and they would have to haul the water in from Viburnum to do all their watering.
“We also stayed in a camper,” Shirley says. “We would have to take solar showers every morning. They were always so cold.”
Now that Mark and Shirley are retired they’ll be living at and operating the tasting room regularly noon to 6 p.m. Friday – Sundays. Steve and Kathy will also be at the winery regularly, but they are still living and working full-time in St. Louis.
Sunrise over the vineyard at the Red Moose Winery.
Submitted
“Kathy and I have always said our favorite thing about operating the winery is working with the vines,” Shirley says. “It is so beautiful and peaceful out there. We almost consider the grapes part of the family. We water them. We prune them. We watch them grow up every year.”
The history of the Red Moose’s corner of the Ozarks also offers the perfect amount of awe and reflection to accompany each sip of the Leitner’s delicious wine.
Millions of years ago a massive asteroid slammed into the Earth’s crust, forging a seven kilometer wide depression known as the Crooked Creek Crater. The Red Moose stands at the edge of this crater and has several blends of its wine dedicated to this geological wonder, including Sweet Crater Red, Meteorwhite and 38th Parallel; named after the path of destruction left by the prehistoric asteroid that included seven craters across three states, all of which landed roughly along the 38th line of latitude.
“It’s quite a site to see the crater today,” Mark says. “If you go down to the impact zone it’s amazing, the blast was so strong there are massive rocks sticking straight up in the air.”
Crooked Creek is an impact crater in Crawford County, Missouri, United States. It is 7 km in diameter and the age is estimated to be 320 ± 80 million years. The crater is exposed to the surface. This is one of the 38th parallel structures.
Google Earth
Bates Hollow, which the Red Moose Winery currently inhabits, was also named for its original owner, a colorful old time Sligo teamster by the name of James Bates. Drivers to the Red Moose Winery today can note several abandoned buildings and structures from Sligo’s glory days marking the route.
The year 2015 is setting up to be a signature label for the Red Moose Winery. In addition to the grand opening of their tasting room, this year’s harvest looks to be their largest yet due to the immense amount of rainfall this summer.
“We are hoping we will have enough room for it all,” Kathy says.
Missouri’s economy is also looking to quite the boon this year from its wine industry. The Red Moose Winery can add its name to a list of over 120 wineries in the state which create an annual economic impact of $1.76 billion for the state, according to the Missouri Wine and Grape Board. That total includes $52 million in wine sales, $220 million in wine-related tourism expenditures and $454 million in wages paid to wine industry workers. Wineries directly employ over 15,000 people in Missouri.
The Red Moose Winery is now the closest winery located to Salem, the other nearby producers being further away in St. James and Mountain View.
