Cider Review: Rootwood Cider Co.'s Harrison

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I found out about Rootwood Cider Company through the Northwest Cider Club. This is a wonderful way to get access to a mouthwatering array of ciders from that region. I would not find out about a fraction of the Northwest ciders I’ve enjoyed without them. 

Here’s a link to the club for the curious: https://nwciderclub.com/

This introduction to Rootwood Cider Co. came through a delivery in 2021, so it has waited a while in my cellar. Here’s what I can say about the cider producer. This Washington State cidery was founded in 2014 in the Koenig family’s 5th generation of orcharding. The cidery is now owned by Emily, Kate, and Anna Koenig. A short quote from the about page on the cidery website gives a sense of the cidery’s breadth of style.

“Rootwood will continue to produce a combination of traditional and modern ciders - both heirloom apple blends and single-varietal products, and small-batch experimental ciders such as the syrah-infused Rosé, honey infused Pollinator, and ghost chili pepper infused Golden Ghost.”

This will be my first ever review of anything by Rootwood. I was excited to try the Harrison on a recent spring evening, because of the mystique surrounding the varietal. Here’s how Rootwood Cider Co. introduces it.

Tasting notes

HARRISON - SINGLE VARIETAL - juicy apple brightness with a warm sherrylike finish

Once thought to be extinct, a single Harrison apple tree was rediscovered in 1976 in New Jersey, allowing for the reintroduction of this variety through grafting and budding. This cider was produced with apples from our estate cider orchard, where more than 500 Harrison trees grow today. 6.9% ABV.

Appearance: Orange,  bubbly

I was shocked initially by the Harrison’s intense shade of orange. I admit, it left me curious about what to expect from this cider. The cider is brilliant, bubbly, and bewitching with its unusual hue. I’ve seen a few UK or French ciders with shades of orange for color, but it’s not usual for an american cider or a cider with this level of clarity. 

Aromas: Ripe apples, pear, and peach

As surprising as I found this cider’s appearance, the Harrison smells familiar and wonderful. The enticing notes center on ripe apple, pear, and peach.

Sweetness/dryness: sweet

What a treat! Often single varietal ciders are fermented to total dryness. I like that. It’s a good way to make a considered cider, but it’s not the only way. Rootwood has crafted something lovely approachable and delicious in the sweet but not simple Harrison.

Flavors and drinking experience: Tannic, juicy, golden raisins, apricot finish and bubbly

The sweet and tannic cider does not strike me as typical of any sort of American cider. It’s not always easy to get apples that will make a tannic cider, but Harrison is one. The cider sings with high acidity and notes of golden raisins.

The Harrison’s mid-palate is peachy, juicy, and bubbly. It finishes with a pleasant apricot and seasoned wood drift of flavor.

Cider Review: Albemarle Ciderworks Brut d'Albermarle Harrison

Spring comes in fits and starts, but I’ve felt its approach even in the wet days of mud and breezes this past week. Today the sun shone as the wind blew the cobwebs from my mind. It was a perfect day to trek about in the woods, and I’m so grateful that I was able to make the most of it. Sometimes you just have to cancel all of your indoor plans and be outside. Though cider tastes divine in all sorts of weather, there’s nothing better than enjoying bliss and adding cider to the experience. 

Today I’m sharing my thoughts on Albemarle Ciderworks Brut d'Albermarle Harrison.

I don’t have as many earlier reviews of Albemarle Ciders as I’d like, but here’s the list. 

Goldrush: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/02/cider-review-albemarle-ciderworks.html

Ragged Mountain: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/10/cider-review-albemarle-ragged-mountain.html

Royal Pippin: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/08/cider-review-albemarle-ciderworks-royal.html

Pomme Mary: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/09/cider-review-albemarle-iderworks-pomme.html

Visit Albemarle online here to learn about the current line up: http://www.albemarleciderworks.com.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get much additional information online about the Brut D'Albemarle Harrison. I was able to get some info from the bottle. 

Fermented in the Methode Traditionelle, this bottle conditioned Cidre Bouche is sparkling, spritely, and delightfully effervescent on the palate. It makes a celebratory toast entirely special. Dry and complex, it is an elegant accompaniment to most foods. Serve Chilled. Abv: 9.7%

 Appearance: shining, brilliant, bubbly, evening sun

The color reminds me of the warm evening sunlight, and the Brut D’Albemarle shines as well. The cider is alive with bubbles. It does look like champagne when poured. Lovely.

Aromas: intense, white grape, french bread and melon

What I noticed first and perhaps loved the most about the Brut D’Albemarle’s scents are how the 

aromas leapt from the bottle immediately when I opened it. The cider Looks and smells like a champagne—effervescent with white-grape and French bread smells. I loved the notes of green melon.

Dryness/sweetness: Dry

As promised, the cider is dry! It’s not austere or astringent, but the dryness keeps things taut and crisp.

Flavors and drinking experience: high acid, buttery, tannins, nutty, white grapes, ripe apples

Heavenly. I cannot overstate how good the Brut D’Albemarle tastes. The cider is high-acid in the nicest ways. Of course, I love that the bubbles remind me of champagne with their number and size; they are the star of the show: perfectly plentiful, tiny, and excited. It offers up a complex, long and lovely finish, like a patisserie cream. The mouthfeel is creamy, full and rich. From the buttery first sip, this cider is a winner. 

The Brut D’Albemarle also shares some tannins—but nothing astringent. I found the flavors both nutty, and grapey, somehow like eating from deep in the fruit with gentle ripe apple notes. It’s all natural, exciting, surprising, and sophisticated but not austere.

My household enjoyed this cider with a lovely cheese plate, various dips, and lots of veggie crudité. What a way to celebrate the season! 

Cider Review: Troddenvale's Countryside Farm (100% Harrison)

Welcome back to everyone returning from their time at CiderCon. I hope you had a fantastic adventure. I loved following everyone’s posts about it. I hope re-entry into regular life is gentle and pleasant for you all. This is often a difficult season, so I offer you wishes for cold steady temperatures for orchards and warm hearths filled with love inside. Today, I’m sharing notes on a special cider that was a birthday gift last year from my darling tall one. He found for me a cider that he thought looked especially promising Troddenvale’s Countryside Farm (100% Harrison) from the Grower Series. 

Troddenale at Oakley Farm is based in Warm Springs, Virginia near the George Washington National Forest. This cider is one of the earliest releases, a batch from 2018. Here’s how the folks at Trodenvale describe their methods of cidermaking. I think it's a great introduction to the identity of this cidery more generally.

Stripping away the modern techniques and dogmatic notions of the commercial beverage industry, we strive to make pure expressions of distinct fruit and showcase where they are grown. Focusing on what the fruit can give us requires patience and limited intervention. 

Working with true cider varietals limits the need of flavor-enhancing adjuncts and corrections. Relying purely on native microbial populations provides genuine complexity and individual character. Fermenting in neutral oak creates depth and microflora continuity. Bottling unfiltered provides texture, leaving nothing behind. Limiting the addition of preservatives ensures these ciders are transparent, alive, and evolving.

Visit Troddenvale online to learn about the current lineup of ciders: https://www.troddenvale.com/

Here’s what info I could glean about the Countryside Farm from the cider's back label. 

The grower series focuses on expression of single orchard sites. 

Sparkling Cider. 100% Harrison.

Grown by Countryside Farm and Nurseries of Crimora, Virginia.

Concentrated rich aromatics. Robust phenolic structure. Drink with food. Full native yeast fermentation in neutral oak. Sur lie aged. Undisgorged.

No fining/filtration.

No pasteurization.

No chapitalization.

No acidification.

No added sulfites.

Batch 2018

35 Cases produced

Alc. 8.5% by volume

From the great springs region of Virginia, sparkling ciders of origin driven by transparency. Produced and bottled by Troddenvale, Warm Springs, Virginia.

Appearance: deep color, few visible bubbles, hazy, no sediment in the first 2 glasses

The cider is hazy with deep marigold color, few visible bubbles, no sediment in the first 2 glasses.

Aromas: Woody, twiggy, lime, mineral, and floral

There are wonderful complexities to these aromas. The Countryside Farm smells powerfully woody in a way that anticipates both tannins and acid. I think the cider will be bright and dry, but we’ll see what flavors lie in store. It smells English but not too powerfully funky. There’s also a beautiful interplay of lime, mineral and floral notes.

Sweetness/dryness: Dry

The Countryside Farm tastes dry but not bone dry. The cider has a lot going on that feels totally separate from the dry/sweet spectrum.

Flavors and drinking experience: petillant, tannic, wood, full mouthfeel, angular

This cider, upon first sip, was declared an instant winner. It’s petillant with angular fruitiness, high tannins, and white wood notes. It doesn’t taste traditionally barrelly, but also definitely gained something from its fermentation in neutral oak. I appreciate how full the mouthfeel is. The Countryside Farm is boozy at 8.5oz but with no undue heat. 

It’s well balanced, especially considering that its a single varietal. I don’t expect to get the right counterbalance of acidity, tannin, bubbles, phenolics and everything from just one apple. The minimal intervention approach that Troddenvale committed to was entirely rewarding in this case. I am beyond impressed!

Overall, the cider is serious, but immediately rewarding. I love that it’s still completely delicious a full five years after fermentation (it’s a 2018 batch)! We just served it with a hearty yet simple United Kingdom inspired dinner of jacketed potatoes with beans, shredded cheddar and vegetarian sausage. It was perfect!

Cider Review: De Vergeten Appel's Het Bonte Appeltje, Blue Bee's Harrison and Cider Week VA

Hello, cider lovers! I think lots of folks are getting to a fever pitch of Thanksgiving planning and starting to think about winter holidays. The snowy weather here in the Finger Lakes is certainly encouraging that, but I’m not ready! Instead, I’m thinking about movies and wishing one of the theaters around here sold cider or had a BYOC policy. Most people like to combine their favorite things, and for me that would be cider and movies. 

SInce I can’t enjoy my cider with my theater experiences, what I can do is think about the movies I’ve enjoyed recently while sipping on my ciders at home. 

This past week, I was thrilled to get to try De Vergeten Appel’s Het Bonte Appeltje. This was my Thursday date night cider with the Tall One. After cider and dinner, we went to see Parasite by Bong Joon-Ho. 

The cider is one that the Tall One brought back from his recent time in Amsterdam. He has a great time tracking down ciders for me when he travels, and I’m so grateful for it. De Vergeten Appel is a company that started after a series of happenstance events that have the cutest possible origin. Johan Holleman started making cider because his neighbor had an apple tree that scared his dogs. This tree had too many apples to be used in almost any other way, so Holleman tried making cider. The rest of the company grew from there, using lots of apples that would otherwise go to waste from a variety of dutch orchards.

You can visit the company online to learn more: https://devergetenappel.nl/

Here’s the Google translation of the cidery’s description for Het Bonte Appelje

The traditional cider from De Vergeten Appel is made from classic Dutch apples that are no longer grown commercially. The apples come exclusively from small orchards and individuals from the Tilburg area. No pesticides or fertilizers are used in these orchards. The apples used would be wasted if they were not picked by hand to be processed in this delicious cider. 

Ingredients:100% juice from pressed apples, yeast, sugar for re-fermentation in the bottle. 

Contains sulfites.
Keep cool and dark.Cool before use and open gently.Recommended drinking temperature of 7 ° CProduced and bottled by "De Vergeten Appel" in Tilburg

Appearance: tea, transparent, bubbly

This cider has the warm orange glow of tea. I see some bubbles in the glass, and a tiny ring of bubbles at the top. The cider isn't hazy, but it's also not fully brilliant; I'll call the clarity transparent.

Aromas: Homemade applesauce, spice, citrus

Het Bonte Appeltje smells like many orchard-based American ciders. The primary olfactory impression is that of homemade applesauce. I also get traces of citrus, spice, stone and grain.

Sweetness/dryness: Semi-dry

This is a semi-dry cider with lots of fruit characteristics. Everything in the sweetness tastes very natural. 

Flavors and drinking experience: high acid, tannins on the finish, citrus, bubbly

As with the aromas, this cider reminds me very much of some of the sorts of American ciders I like best. 

What I taste first is Het Bonte Appeltje’s very high acid! This semi-dry cider feels austere and pointed on the tongue, quite a bit like an American dry cider but with a gentle English influence. I get some tannins on the finish that take their time to arrive, but once they get there, it’s oh so pleasant.

In terms of fruit flavors I taste strong lime notes and ripe apple. There's an interesting tongue-numbing note of pine needles. I also detect some yeast character that reminds me of fresh warm bread. The texture is very bubbly. This cider  cuts through cheese soup with adroitness and effervescent clarity. With this meal it’s well-balanced and very food friendly.

It was a great preamble to a dark class comedy. Parasite is not a movie that has left my mind since I watched it. I appreciate the genre-bending twists and the pitch-perfect comedic timing. 

Next up, Blue Bee's Harrison with tiny recommendations to go see Jojo Rabbit and Harriet. I'm not a film blogger, so don't expect too much!

Blue Bee Cider has  been part of the cider scene as Virginia's first urban cidery since 2013. Blue Bee presents itself as not only highly local but also small-batch and seasonal. The ciders aren’t all only traditional though, Blue Bee Cider makes ciders with fruit and hops as well. Blue Bee Cider was kind enough to share this sample with me for review.

Here’s my most recent Blue Bee Cider review of the Hewe’s Crab: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/10/cider-review-two-towns-ciderhouse.html

And my take on the Hopsap Shandy:
https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/12/cider-review-blue-bees-hopsap-shandy.html

My 4th favorite cider of 2017 was Blue Bee Cider’s Charred Ordinary: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/03/cider-review-blue-bee-cider-charred.html

Visit Blue Bee Cider online to learn about all of the ciders, their cider club, and upcoming events: https://www.bluebeecider.com/

Blue Bee Cider’s Harrison is a single varietal cider. Here’s how the company describes it.

A rare breed, the HARRISON apple makes a comeback from near-extinction in this distinct, fruit forward cider. Earthy aroma, round tannin, notes of golden raisin and orange zest. 

RS 0.5%, ABV 8.5%.

Appearance: Brilliant, dandelion yellow, bubbly

This cider poured with a freshly effervescent mousse that vanished quickly. I’ll call the color dandelion yellow, but I’ve not seen a dandelion in many months, so it’s anything sunny and bright. What I can say with certainty is that this cider is brilliant.

Aromas: Woody, butterscotch, crystallized fruit

The Harrison smells mouthwateringly woody. It reminds me of a barn just as it’s starting to get rained on; the smell is fresh and wet. The cider’s aromas remind me of crystalised fruit, butterscotch, toffee, and toasted nuts. Something about the way the Harrison smells tells me this cider will be massively acidic.

Dryness/Sweetness: Off Dry

The Harrison is a beautiful example of an off dry cider. There’s just enough sweetness to enhance the cider without ever calling attention to itself as sweetness. 

Flavors and drinking experience: bright, tannic, ripe apples, citrus, paper

Holy wow! Blue Bee’s Harrison tastes amazing! This cider is acidic tannic, astringent, and fruity. Something about the tannins makes me think about old maps, paper, antiques, sunlight, and dust. I can taste lychee, lime, and ripe apple throughout. There’s a lovely overwhelming brightness here. Everything about this cider adds up to something golden and overripe,

Yes, I may be a sucker for off dry, high acid, medium tannic ciders in general. But the Harrison is more than just those check boxes. It reminds me of tangerine and lime, but the finish has a floral start that fades into butterscotch. Overall, the Harrison is very well balanced and simply outstanding.

And I must say, that the two movies that I got to discuss while enjoying this cider, Jojo Rabbit and Harriet, were both as worth my time as the cider was. They were very different, but both powerful stories. They also both offered more than just what one might expect from the trailers. I am loathe to reveal more, but I was impressed in more ways that I anticipated. 

Last thing, before I vanish. In less than a week Cider Week Virginia will be here! If you’ve been thinking about making a little trip to Virginia to explore cider, this is the time! November 15- 24 will  be packed to the gills with cider activities. 

Find out all about them: https://ciderweekva.com/

Here’s the Facebook event where you can learn more: https://www.facebook.com/events/593462531182987/

And if you’re already in Virginia, you have no excuse. Go enjoy Cider Week VA!