photo by: Courtesy: Crescent Moon Winery

For more than a decade, Crescent Moon Winery has had a business strategy that includes people going to look at the famous Grinter fields of sunflowers in Leavenworth County and then getting a glass of wine or two at the winery just down the road.

Now, there’s a twist to that strategy. Soon, people will be able to shop at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop — or any other downtown retailer — and then get some wine at a tasting room in the heart of downtown.

Crescent Moon Winery has filed plans to open a tasting room and wine-related retail shop at 732 Massachusetts St. Look for the shop to open by mid-October, although owners Kieth and Cheryl Hand had hoped to have the location open by now.

Yeast, among other things, has slowed that timeline down. As I was talking to Cheryl on Monday morning, she had a host of tasks to do, including throwing yeast on a bunch of sauvignon blanc grapes, one of the first steps in making a wine.

Well, not the first step. Someone has to pick those grapes, and that is going on right now.

“I have touched every vine that we own,” Cheryl said. “Harvest gets crazy busy, and we don’t sleep a lot.”

Those sauvignon blanc grapes were picked Sunday, which preceded a big harvest dinner the winery hosted for volunteers who came to help with the picking. The dinner is a reminder that there are many people who know about the Crescent Moon Winery, but the Hands are convinced there could be many more.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The vacant building at 732 Massachusetts St. is shown in August 2021. Crescent Moon Winery plans to open a tasting room in the location this fall. Delaney & Loew, the kitchen store previously at the spot, has moved to the southeast corner of Eighth and Massachusetts.

That’s where the downtown venture comes into play. Cheryl said the hope is that the downtown tasting room will lead more people to the Leavenworth County winery, which is about 7 miles outside of Lawrence.

“The downtown shop will be another way to get people in the door and help them learn more about it,” she said. “We want to promote the wines. We don’t want to be a wedding venue or a big event space. We are just excited for people to come meet us and know what we do.”

The downtown space will have at least three categories of sales. First will be tastings, or flights of tastings, that people can purchase. The winery produces 16 versions of red and white wines, and a 17th probably will be done by the time the store opens. Hard apple and pear ciders also will be part of the menu.

Second, people can purchase bottles of wine to consume offsite. The part of the Kansas law the Hands are using to open the downtown shop, however, won’t allow them to sell bottles that people can consume on site. The shop also can’t sell wine by the glass, meaning you can get a sample size of wine, but you can’t order a glass of it to enjoy on site. The rules are different for the tasting room at the winery itself. People can order a bottle to enjoy on site, or can order wine by the glass or even “wine slushies” during the summertime.

Third, people will be able to shop for a variety of wine accessories or wine-themed gifts. Cheryl said plans call for the shop to carry a nice line of European-style wine glasses, in addition to cheese boards and many of the other tools or accompaniments that make enjoying wine easier.

But the wines — and the winemakers — will be the primary drawing card. Cheryl said Crescent Moon doesn’t try to imitate any other style of winemaking — although she and Kieth did live in Europe for a while — but rather they like creating Kansas wines.

They want to help people become more familiar with Kansas-style wines, like Starry Starry Night, a red dessert wine fortified with a port produced in Atchison. Telling people about wine is one of the the couple’s favorite parts of the business. That’s because talking about their wines means they are getting a chance to meet new people, Cheryl said. 


That wasn’t always the idea, though, with the winery. In the late 2000s, the couple were merely looking for something to do with their several acres of rural land that didn’t involve constantly mowing it. Fellow area winemaker Greg Shipe of Davenport Orchards and Winery convinced them to grow some grapes.

The Hands started out with 250 vines. The grape growing really didn’t end up being any easier than mowing the property would have been, but the couple soon had 1,250 vines nonetheless. Now, they simply keep track in terms of acres. The winery has about four acres of vines that feature 12 varieties of grapes.

And, yes, they still mow a lot. But they also have gotten to know a lot, especially people.

“Meeting people and enjoying people is one of the things most people like about wine,” Cheryl said. “You don’t meet many people who buy wine to drink it alone. It tends to be a reason to bring people together. I know we have made amazing friendships that will last a lifetime that we never would have made if it wasn’t for the winery.”