I've not typically been a fan of ciders, but the other night I went to a tasting hosted by Eve's Cidery, at Indian Creek Farms orchard. Both parts (the orchard and the cider) were incredible.
Indian Creek sells trees commercially and to private growers, and also has a pretty phenomenal orchard. Eve's Cidery uses natural cider-making techniques and nothing but juice. It was unlike any cider I've had before, and definitely made me rethink them.
Founded by Autum Stoscheck, the cidery focuses on varietals; she's hoping to eventually have cider take a place more alongside wine than beer. We tasted several, but the 2015 Northern Spy was probably the most interesting. It's 100% Northern Spy and has a residual sugar of 1.5%, very much like tasting a single-varietal white wine.
The flip side of that was the 2015 Autumn Gold, which just tasted like summer in a bottle. Check out the mix on that one (from their web site):
- 17% Ellis Bitter
- 17% Yarlington Mill
- 14% Dabinette
- 12% Akane
- 12% Idared
- 10% Wild seedling
- 7% Liberty
- 6% St. Edmund’s Russet
- 3% Virginia Crab
- 2% Stembridge Cluster
- 70% of the apples were estate grown, 30% were grown by Steve Wood and Louisa Spencer, Lebanon, New Hampshire.
You'd probably have to be local to find it, but if you have a chance I highly recommend it. Definitely made me re-think ciders.
