Desert Moon Vineyards

This review is for the wine, chocolate, and cheese pairing class. My boyfriend bought a Living Social deal for the class and we used it today. We tasted four wines (liked the Groove most), three cheeses (the goat cheese with fig was the best), and pieces of dark chocolate and a truffle. Also included were grapes and baguette slices to help cleanse the palate. Refills were gladly provided if you ran out of wine before you finished making your way through the cheeses and chocolate. All you had to do was ask. I thought the class was fun and I learned more about wine. The guy who taught the class (sorry, can’t remember his name) was very friendly and knowledgeable and not a wine snob at all. The owner of the winery was very kind as well. It was a great way to spend a couple of hours.

I’d give zero stars if I could.
I too purchased a Living Social deal, like others. The class I purchased was offered 1 time in the period from Sept to March and of course it was a day I wasn’t able to attend.
After a couple of email attempts, the owner responded and gave me some options.
To explore those options, I decided to head out to the tasting room. The website says they are open Saturdays and Sundays from 1 – 5. I showed up last Sunday to see on the door they were only open on Saturdays (owner never acknowledge my email regarding updating their website). I went out there today (it’s Saturday) at 1, waited around until 1:30, they never opened and my phone call has gone unacknowledged.
It’s too bad because I’ve had the wine and it’s pretty good — but not worth the unreliable hours and poor service. I’ll avoid buying it in stores now too.

The wine tasting was a nice night out with my wife. We tasted and bought two bottles of wine that were okay, not great, but wanted to support a local shop. Honestly though, drinking them at home, they were both absolutely horrible. We poured one bottle down the drain at a party and the other a few weeks later at home. I have never had such poor wine. Definitely different in taste than what we sampled. I would not waste your time or money at this place.

Couple things:
1. Even with using a Groupon deal ($ 30 for 2 people), it was overpriced.
2. If you go to Napa, you pay $ 15 per person for a tasting and get 3 times the amount of wine. Its a «tasting» so you need to pour more wine so we can actually taste it.
3. The presentation was far too long
4. They could class it up a bit and go beyond paper plates and plastic chairs.

We went there last night for just the Wine Tasting. It is placed in a very odd place as we live near the centennial airport and did not know that they were located there.
5 Things:
1. Cut the cheese beforehand, as I know it keeps the cheese fresher but whats 15 mins. We had 6 people sitting at our table and didnt even get to try our cheese with all.
2. You need just alil bit more wine if you are tasting wine. If it is a wine tasting class you do your sniff and then sip and all that and then you taste it with each cheese, you need more wine in your glass. It is about 2 sips.
3. It took us an hour and a half to get through the first two wines. The presentation is to lengthy. We still had two wines to go and 2 desert wines. It lasted from 6:30 — 8:45 and that was with us drink the last two cups quickly. No need to repeat things 3 and 4 times, we are all adults there and we got it the first time.
4. Buy a groupon/​living social if you would like to go as it is definitely a well needed cost effective way to do it.
5. The shiver wine (desert wine) is great to me, all the other wines are not for my palatte. Although this wine was $ 25 for a very small bottle, if I ever did buy a wine from there this is the one that I would.

This review is for the wine tasting class only:
I wasn’t sure what to expect here, as I saw some less than favorable reviews for the place. Desert Moon Vineyards is set out by the Centennial Airport in a sort of industrial area where you wouldn’t expect to find a winery. Despite the dreariness of the area, inside, the «shop» area is very rustic and sparsely decorated.
We came for a wine tasting class with friends. When we arrived on a very cold Saturday, we were surprised to realize just how cold the building is. We entered in the front room and after signing in and presenting the merchant with a Groupon, we were seated in the back room, where the wine barrels are kept and which sort of looks a cave. Very, very cold in this spot. It would have been nice if you’re told in advance. In the summer, the coolness would be appreciated, but at 3 degrees, when you can’t take off your coat, it’s a bit too cold to be there.
There was a sommelier who discussed the steps of wine tasting and then we were served a small pour for tasting of the two whites and then later, the two reds. We were served a tray with 3 types of cheese and a bunch of grapes, should you need a snack. There was also a basket of bread to use as a palate cleanser. I enjoyed the cheese paired with wine, but it would have been nice to have the cheese already cut and served instead of the customers trying to slice cheese with plastic knives. IN the second part of the tasting, we were served milk and dark chocolate. It would have been very helpful to have the dark chocolate cut up in advance, as a plastic knife did not help in attempting to cut the chocolate at all. However, despite these minor annoyances, I felt the class was very helpful and that I learned a lot. The sommelier made the class a very enjoyable event.
At the end of the wine tasting, we walked back into the front room to try the last two wines, the «Shiver» (an ice wine) and their Port. We did buy a bottle of the Off-​Dry Riesling and I will look for their wines in the future.

The wine is good, however the hours are not always accurate to when they owner is there. No issues with using the groupon though, and the class was informative.

If you see a Groupon or Living Single deal from the vineyard — PASS!!! They make it so you can never use it!!!

I bought the Living Social deal with some friends. It was a little hard to get into a tasting (class), but finally arranged a time. The place really doesn’t have much atmosphere (cool in the barrel room). Cool as in looking, but freezing temperature for a place to do a class. The class was interesting, but, a couple of items:
1. For a paid class… more wine in each glass needed.
2. Please cut up the cheese and serve it.
3. Shorten the class and cut the «film.»
4. The wine was okay and we did buy some to take home.

RUDE! I booked the Groupon for the wine tasting class and attempted multiple times to schedule a class. When I finally was able to talk to someone on the phone who told me she could not schedule me then and to just keep checking back, I thought that was really unprofessional to ask me to just keep trying and trying for weeks and weeks. I asked her to call me when the course schedule was online, and she said her to do list was too long. I expressed my frustration, and the woman was nothing but rude and yelled at me on the phone. If their wine tastes like their attitude, then it will be shallow, dank, and hard to swallow.