Cider Review: Dragon's Head Cider's Rosé

I write from a cozy desk spot on a rainy Labor Day. I’m grateful to have today for rest and even more grateful to those who labor to keep things functioning today and everyday. This time of year, that especially means orchard and farm workers. Thank you! 

Today, my review features Dragon’s Head Cider’s Rosé. This cider was part of a Northwest Cider Club Shipment. I love being able to purchase curated selections of ciders not usually available to me in remote upstate New York. You can learn more about the Northwest Cider club here: https://nwciderclub.com/

Dragon’s Head Cider comes to us from Vashon, Washington. Vashion is an island with an orchard off the coast of Washington state. 

Here’s how Dragon’s Head Cider introduces their process and philosophy of cider making. 

From apple to bottle, all right here on our farm.

At Dragon’s Head Cider, we take a traditional approach to cider making. Our focus is on the apple varieties that we use and the quality of the fruit. We love the story that apples alone can tell through cider, altering the flavor by changing the blend of apple varieties that we carefully select. The process is simple and the ingredients list is short. Perhaps we’re a little old fashioned.

You can read the rest of the process and learn about all of Dragon’s Head cider on the website: http://www.dragonsheadcider.com/

I don’t have many previous review of Dragon’s Head ciders, because I haven’t gotten to taste them nearly as often as I’d like. Here are all of the cidery’s earlier appearances on the blog. 

Heritage: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/09/cider-review-liberty-ciderworks-wickson.html

Wild Fermented (#1 cider of 2019!): http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/04/cider-review-dragons-head-wild.html

In 2018, Dragon’s Head appears in my coverage of CiderCon: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cidercon-part-2-including-heritage.html

Here’s the official description of Dragons Head Rosé:

Our Rosé Cider is created from a unique blend of red fleshed apple varieties, including Redfield apples from our own orchard. Unlike typical apple trees, in the Spring, the blossoms on the Redfield trees are bright pink, the leaves are a reddish bronze, and amazingly the flesh of these beautiful apples is red. When the apples are pressed the juice is a crimson color that lightens and clears into the blush rosé that you see in the bottle. Bright and fruity, this cider is certainly unique for its color but also delicious in flavor.

Alcohol 6.90%

Appearance: Brilliant, Bubbly, Copper Red

What a beautiful cider. I totally understand why the Rosé cider is bottled in clear glass. The coppery red color is too inviting not to share! The cider is brilliant and bubbly as well. What a visual invitation.  

Aroma: Mineral notes, Cranberry, Grapefruit, Black Pepper

The first scents that  unfold are mineral notes followed by cranberry, grapefruit and pepper. I know some folks question minerality, but I don’t know exactly how to put it when sniffing a cider makes me think about rocks. The cider’s aromas make my mouth water.

Dryness/Sweetness: Dry

Dragon’s Head Cider’s Rosé cider is dry. I’ll not call it bone dry, but it’s close.

Flavors and drinking experience: High acidity, high tannins, peach, floral finish

The Dragon’s Head Rosé cider has high but not extreme acidity. It makes a wonderful first impression of fruity and zinginess. That’s immediately followed by medium high tannins that ground and anchor the cider. I loved the floral finish with bits of peach. It’s a deeply enjoyable cider. The texture is defined by very fine bubbles. 

Upon second and third sips, I started to notice a gentle caramel note beneath the brightness. The fruitiness gets more definitively peach, cranberry with a bit of a spicy green pepper note at the end.  The cider has a thin light body that is kept angular by the acidity. It's a stimulating cider that’s tremendously inviting for food. Dragon’s Head Cider’s Rosé is just so good!

I paired this with a roasted chickpea, tomato, feta salad. Highly recommended!

Cider Review: Liberty Ciderworks Wickson Crab, Alpenfire's Glow Airlie Red, and Dragon's Head Heritage

 

We’ve crossed the Autumnal Equinox and (in the Northern Hemisphere) begun our descent through our harvests to the colder and darker portion of the year. Happily, we’re well into the local apple harvest, and I’ve been experimenting with apple recipes and desserts as well as cider.  

This week I want to cover the amazing ciders I got to enjoy as the Washington Fine Cider tasting last Friday evening. Tech issues gave me problems connecting and hearing folks, so I wasn’t able to connect with cider folks as much as I hoped. Nonetheless, I was thrilled about this cider lineup, and I understand that the session had plenty of good cider making and orcharding education. 

Thanks so much to Washington Cider Week and the folks who made it possible for attend virtually this year! Hopefully in a year very soon, I’ll make it out there, and we can enjoy these west coast orchards, ciders and dinners together in person. Here's hoping!

I started my tasting with Liberty Ciderworks’ Wickson Crab and a sharp Vermont cheddar.

For background info on Liberty Ciderworks, you can visit the cidery online or take a peek at my review of the Manchurian Crabapple SV cider.  

I only have one previous Liberty Ciderworks review. Check it out below.

Manchurian Crabapple SV Cider: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/08/cider-review-liberty-ciderworks.html

I recommend checking out Liberty Ciderworks on the web: http://libertycider.com

The official description for Liberty Ciderworks Wickson crab single varietal reads:

RESERVE SERIES | 05.20

One of pomologist Albert Etter's finest creations, Wickson crabapples (introduced in 1944) were developed with west coast conditions in mind. True to form, this cider exhibits a bright, spicy character with green apple, nectarine, lemongrass and stone fruit notes. ABV 6.5% 

Aromas: overripe oranges, powdered sugar, dark berries, ripe apple, barrel 

The Wickson Crab smells rich, darkly barrel-esque (though from my understanding it isn’t barrel aged), with notes of apple seed, sweet cream and overripe oranges. Something in the aroma reminds me of powdered sugar. 

Sweetness/dryness: Off Dry

This is a lovely off dry cider.

Flavors and drinking experience: citrus, high tannins, medium sparkle, clean 

This cider tastes not sweet but citrusy, like blood orange. It certainly brings high acidity and medium to high tannins. I love that the Wickson tastes leathery but refreshing, which is a remarkable combo. This is one of my favorite apples, so I’m not surprised that a single varietal can taste this good! This cider offers a medium intensity of bubbles but I usually wish there was more. Liberty Ciderworks created a nice clean bright finish; I feel that’s extra neat given the cider’s dark nose. 

Next, I opened up my bottle of Alpenfire Glow Airlie Red. This needed to be paired with a very dark chocolate mousse. For background on this Washington cidery, I recommend my previous coverage of the company and Alpenfire’s website. 

My earlier Alpenfire reviews include the following.

Dungeness:http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/03/cider-review-alpenfires-dungeness-and.html

Flame: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/08/cider-review-alpenfire-ciders-flame.html

You can visit Alpenfire to find out more from the cidery online: http://alpenfirecider.com.

The folks at Aplenfire offer lots of info about the Glow Airlie Red

Glow AERLIE RED

Single Varietal Rosé Cider

Winner, Cidercraft Double Gold 2018

Winner, Dan Berger Int’l Wine Competition Double 2016

Winner, SIP Best of the Northwest Silver 2016

Winner, GLINTCAP Silver Medal 2012

Vintage | 2018 (released October 2019)

Package - Cases | 500ml - 55 cases, 750ml - 164 cases, draft - 180 gallons

ABV | 8.2%

Varietals | Airlie Redflesh (Hidden Rose®)

Process | 8 week cold fermentation, 9 months matured in stainless tanks.

Our award winning Alpenfire Glow is fermented from the Airlie Red, an organically grown apple from the south end of the Willamette Valley with red flesh is what we use to create this single varietal rosé cider. No filtration, adjuncts, colorings, or other fruits are added to this cider, just full strength fresh pressed red fleshed apple nectar.

Aromas: floral, tropical, perfumed, ripe apples

The Glow smells tropical, perfumed, and floral. The predominant note is ripe apples, but I also smell peaches, pineapples, and bananas.

Sweetness/dryness: semi-dry

This is a semi-dry cider with no hint of anything artificial or non apple in its sweetness.

Flavors and drinking experience: high acid, low tannins, very sparkly, mild funk

Somehow the Glow tastes low in the mouth. I’m not entirely sure what characteristic I’m getting at when I say that, but it’s what I perceived. The cider brings a bit of Funk and loads of high acid that cling a with a pleasant burn. This doesn’t have the flavor profile of many rose ciders. The Glow is semi-dry with present but understated tannins. I love how much sparkle I get from this cider.  

The Glow has a lithe and zestly mouth feel. This is a fun one if you want to expand your expectations for Rose ciders!

I finished my tasting with Dragon’s Head Heritage cider.  

Dragon’s Head is a cidery based on Vachon Island off the coast of Washington State for more background information, I’ll point readers to my earlier reviews.

Wild Fermented (#1 cider of 2019!): http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/04/cider-review-dragons-head-wild.html

The cidery also appears in this write up of CiderCon: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cidercon-part-2-including-heritage.html

Here’s the website where you can learn more about Dragon's Head Cider: http://www.dragonsheadcider.com/

Here’s how the folks at Dragon’s Head describe it. 

Our heritage cider is crafted from a blend of more than 20 traditional English and French cider apple varieties grown in our orchard on Vashon Island, WA. These time-honored apples create a richness of flavor and character to cider that can’t be achieved with ordinary culinary apples. ABV of 7.3%.

I am so excited at that description of Estate bittersweet apples.

 Aromas: sugar snap peas, salt, wine grapes, wild rice

This is a cider that smells like a sea breeze. The notes I get are all fresh air, salt, wine grapes, and minerals. There’s a springy vegetal element like sugar snap peas. The Heritage Cider smell farmy, with shadows of mushrooms, wild rice.

Sweetness/dryness: Dry

This is unambiguously a dry cider, yet I’m glad it was saved for last.

Flavors and drinking experience: unusual profile, medium acid, high tannins, very funky 

What a wonderfully wild profile. This cider really does take those apples and make something very different than even the heritage ciders I’m accustomed to in my region. The Heritage has medium acidity but very high tannins. The apples certainly are bittersweets rather than bittersharps. I taste grape stem, there’s a bit of astringence and austere structure. The notes of wild rice and mushroom flavor that came through in the aroma continue to the flavor. I also get some cheese notes of extreme cheddar sharpness. The fruit comes across as the barest hint of a little dark sweetness. The cider is mature and very funky.

My 10 Favourite Ciders of 2019!

We’ve almost made it through 2019. That means I get to look back at my ciders before beginning another fresh and new year. 2019 was a heart breaker, but also I experienced many moments of joy. I hope you did too. I took part in some fantastic cider experiences, and I hope you did too. I reviewed more than 100 ciders this year, so I had the largest field yet of contenders for my favorite. It was tremendously difficult for me to narrow down to just ten favorites, but each of the ciders below is a gem. 

Here are all of my previous year’s top 10s! Please go back and find your favorites!

2018: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-favourite-10-ciders-of-2018.html

2017: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2017.html

2016: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2016.html

2015: https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2015.html

2014: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2014.html

And my first ever cider countdown from 2013: 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2013/12/my-10-favorite-ciders-of-2013.html

And I'll quote my own rules again. “As in earlier years, I have two rules: I'm not listing more than one cider from any company, and I am going to limit myself to ciders that have coverage in the blog. Beyond that, my only caveat is that these are my personal favorites that I wrote about in 201[9]. These may or may not be your favorites, but I encourage you to taste them and make up your own mind.”

With no further blathering, let me show you what ciders I loved most this year! Please share your favorites with me in the comments!

10. Woodchuck/Farnum Hill’s Odd Crush 

http://www.woodchuck.com/age-gate/

http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/

As soon as I heard about this collaboration between New Hampshire legend Farnum Hill with Vermont’s Woodchuck, I was eager to try it. Both of these companies have been making ciders since the 1990s, and their experience gets to shine in this cider. If you prefer things drier than most Woodchuck and sweeter than most Farnum Hill, this might be the perfect treat you’ve been waiting for. Even if you normally shun canned ciders, I urge you to give this aromatic, well-balanced, delicious canned cider a try. 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/07/cider-review-woodchuck-farnum-hills-odd.html

9. Potter’s Craft Cider Pippin Cuvee 

https://www.potterscraftcider.com/

I feel so luck to have been included for the promotion of Cider Week Virginia this year. I got to try some excellent ciders that I otherwise would have had access to. The cider smells like a bouquet of fresh garden greener and ripe apples. I loved it’s bubbly enthusiasm, spiky acidity, and gentle wildness. Congratulations to Potter’s on their new tasting room as well! 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/11/cider-review-potters-craft-cider-pippin.html

8. Aeppeltreow Scarlett Rosey Cider 

http://aeppeltreow.com/

Whether or not you want to call this cider a rosé, this pink semi-sweet cider is delicious. What I love about it comes primarily from crab apples. The acidity is lively and a perfect match for it’s fruity sweetness, plus there’s enough tannin there to enhance the cider’s structure substantially. This cider was completely emblematic of summer sipping while watching the sun cast long evening shadows across my yard. It is lovely. 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/07/cider-review-aeppeltreow-scarlett-rosey.html

7. Eden Specialty Cider’s  Ezekiel

https://www.edenciders.com/

I knew from the moment I tasted the Ezekiel last January, that it would be a front runner for my year end favorites list. This dry Kingston Black Cider has everything. I chose to drink in January for it’s dryness plus body. Sometimes, I give cider makers a hard time for trying so often to create a truly delicious and balanced single-varietal cider. It often holds them back because so few apple varieties are ready to appear unblended, but the Kingston Black can do it. And the Ezekiel does it’s beautiful fruit full justice. I love the intensity of flavor in this cider!

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/01/cider-review-eden-specialty-ciders.html

6. Treasury Cider Homestead Semi-Dry Orchard Cider

http://www.treasurycider.com/

I enjoyed Homestead Cider Semi-Dry at a birthday party. I taste it as a mellow, firm drink; it doesn’t taste austere or pointed, yet it’s still very driven by acid. I appreciate the cider’s balance and plethora of bubbles. But my favorite part has to be the pear notes on the finish. I do recommend this one for fans of dry ciders, as I think most folks would find it plenty dry.

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/11/cider-review-treasury-cider-homestead.html

5. Uncle John’s Cider’s Baldwin 

http://www.fruithousewinery.com/

The enticing aromas of this cider let me know I was going to enjoy it: ripe apples, rock candy, salt, leather and mild phenolics. The Baldwin was fruity with notes that remind me of pineapple, melon, tropical notes, and lush green leaves. It still managed to be dry. I really enjoy this complex, super tart cider.

https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/02/cider-review-cider-labs-empire-royale.html

4. Eve’s Cidery Kingston Black 2017 

https://www.evescidery.com

Another single-varietal made the list. I can’t be surprised because the Kingston Black is a great apple, and Eve’s Cidery cares about bringing the best qualities out of each batch of juice fermented. I love the body, structure, and acidity in this dry cider. The Finger Lakes is home to many talented cider makers, and we are lucky to count the crew at Eve's Cidery among them. 

https://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/08/cider-review-eves-cidery-kingston-black.html

3. Big Fish Cider Co’s Allegheny Gold 

https://www.bigfishcider.com/

I don’t often get the chance to try anything from Big Fish Cider Co, but everything I’ve tried has been delightful. The aromas on this cider are simply inviting; I can smell ripe apples, oats, carrots, golden raisins and caramel. It also really brought lively bubbles, making this cider a party. It was a mature and tasteful party, but a party nonetheless. I loved it!

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/01/cider-review-whitewood-cider-company.html

2. Blue Bee Harrison 

https://www.bluebeecider.com/

The Harrison cider by Blue Bee tastes tannic, acidic and fruity. It’s astringent in a way that reminded me of all manner of old and beautiful things like  maps, paper, antiques, sunlight, and dust. The fruit notes included lychee, lime, and ripe apple. The acidity was overwhelming brightness. It was magical. The Harrison created an overall image both golden and overripe.

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/11/cider-review-de-vergeten-appels-het.html

1. Dragon’s Head Wild Fermented 

http://www.dragonsheadcider.com/

This off-dry cider expanded my expectations for wild ferments as an entire category. Often I find them interesting but not the most hedonistically enjoyable. Dragons Head changed my mind by creating a wild-ferment cider that had appealing aromas like sugar dusted lemon slices and ripe apples. It tasted amazing with notes of citrus and fantastic balance. I was completely bowled over. 

I paired this cider with a fun vacation trip to Seattle, and someday I’d like to pair more Dragons Head with a trip to their orchard on Vashon Island! 

http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/04/cider-review-dragons-head-wild.html

And with that, I wish everyone a relaxing and happy end of 2019! 
Thank you so much to all of my cider friends new and old. Thanks very much to folks who invited me to great cider events, kind people who judged cider with me, tireless volunteers I worked with on state and national cider committees, and members of the friendly and generous online communities that make the cider community fun. I appreciate all of you! And I am so grateful for everyone growing apples, making cider, and promoting this fine beverage. May 2020 be filled with good fruit for all of us! 

Cider Review: Dragon's Head Wild Fermented Cider and Finnriver's Honey Meadow

West Coast ciders don’t get enough love on this blog. It’s not that I don’t feel the love, it’s just that I can’t get my hands on as many west coast ciders easily! Some wonderful companies share their releases with me regularly, but I don’t see many available in stores. Luckily, I took a brief vacation to Seattle with the Tall One last week. Of course, I tasted ciders everywhere I could! Here are my first two reviews from my explorations!  

I saw Dragon's Head Wild Fermented Cider in a fancy grocery store, and it came back with me to the AirBnb post haste. I’ve not gotten to try too many Dragon’s Head ciders, but what I’ve had, I’ve loved. The cidery is run by Wes and Laura Cherry on Vachon Island, off the coast of Washington State. They have a 3000 + tree orchard and a focus on apples and tradition cider making. 

This link will take you to the website where you can read more about Dragon's Head: http://www.dragonsheadcider.com/

Here’s the only previous mention in my blog, in a write up of CiderCon: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cidercon-part-2-including-heritage.html 

Dragon's Head's official description is helpfully full with a few different sections. I’ll quote it in full. 

This is the Dragon’s Head Cider version of a farmhouse cider. Rather than carefully selecting a yeast strain for the fermentation, we allowed the wild yeast present on the skin of the apples to ferment the cider. It’s a bit of a fun gamble, but one we believe is worth taking.

2018 Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition, BRONZE MEDAL 

Tasting Notes 

Appearance – hazy, straw color, some sediment may be presentAroma – pineapple, green tea, apple blossomTaste – lemon and young pineapple flavors are followed by mild spice and lingering grapefruit notesMouthfeel – medium body with mild astringency; lightly effervescent

Appearance: warm straw, brilliant, big bubbles

My glass looks filled with large motionless bubbles. I know this cider will sparkle. The color of the Wild Fermented Cider reminds me of warm straw and the clarity is brilliant. A very good looking cider.

Aromas: lemon, pears, sugar, apples 

Oooh golly. The Wild Fermented cider smells like apples and sugar dusted on a lemon slices. It’s fresh, sweet smelling, fruity and sharp. I love how balanced and enticing it smells. I get notes of citrus, pears, and most of all mellow overripe apples.

Sweetness/dryness: off dry

The Wild Fermented cider is barely off dry. There’s just enough sweetness to expand my ability to perceive the cider’s nuances. 

Flavors and drinking experience: high acid, balanced, bubbly, wine like

This has to be one of the cleanest and most balanced wild ferments I’ve ever tasted. I’m completely impressed. The cider tastes like cool fresh apples with quite high acidity, and plenty of yeast character.  I love that it’s super balanced and controlled. Tasting this cider creates a strong salivary reaction due to both intense sparkle and high acidity. 

The overall experience is very wine like; it reminds me of a very green appley Sauvignon Blanc. I can  definitely taste the apple in this cider, but the fermentation speaks impressively too. It’s delicious in big and small sips.The fruity notes include lots of citrus. The cider doesn't change much over the course of the sip: it hits with the apple and citrus, and stays constant through the finish. What it offers is excellent. The cider’s  mouthfeel is light and zippy. This is remarkably good. 

Finnriver’s Honey Meadow 

Finnriver Farm and Cidery is an organic cidery and winery, farm and event space in Washington State. I love this introduction from the website as a way to understand this cidery’s identity, “While our farm is remote, we're honored to be on the forefront of the Pacific Northwest hard cider revival and to craft ciders that both honor historic hard cider traditions and offer fresh perspectives on the possibilities of the fermented apple. We grow and source organic and seasonal ingredients to celebrate the beauty and bounty of the earth.”

Read more about Finnriver online: https://www.finnriver.com

I have previously reviewed only one cider by Finnriver, the Dry Hopped: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2016/07/cider-review-roundup-common-cider-co.html

I enjoyed the Lavender Black Currant this past November: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/11/cider-reviews-finnrivers-lavender-black.html

The Honey Meadow's official description comes in a few parts. 

Describing the aromas and flavors of the cider, we can read, “This floral, earthy nectar sips like a fine, fermented spring tonic. Distinct floral notes with wandering hints of greenery. Light and crisp, herbal body with notes of artichoke and earth, and finishing with honeyed out-breath and a cream soda sprig of chamomile.”

I’m grateful to get some insight into the apple, herb, and honey choices, “Fermented on the farm with a select blend of Certified Organic Washington apples, organic Midori Farm burdock root, organic dandelion root, organic Finnriver lemon balm, organic chamomile blossom and Sequim Bee Farm blackberry honey.”

The ABV of this cider is 6.5%.

Appearance: brilliant, bubbly bright gold

This color just shouts spring sunshine. I didn’t see much of that in Seattle, but I know it when I see it. The cider is brilliant and obviously bubbly.

Aromas: honey, ripe apples, white flowers, yeast, vanilla

I am so glad that this cider smells of apples first and that the floral and honey notes do not dominate. The Honey Meadow does smell like all sorts of fruits, flowers, and herbs, including honeysuckle, vanilla, light honey, and Meyer lemons. I also get just a little yeast bread buried deep in the aroma. It smells so very pleasant! 

Sweetness/dryness: sweet

The Honey Meadow is a sweet cider. The character of the sweetness is honeyed, rich, and vanilla tinged.

Flavors and drinking experience: herbed, honeyed, rich, funky

What a trip! The Honey Meadow tastes sweetly of creamed honey, while also being funky, herbal, appley and powdery. The floral notes remind me of daisies, queen anne's lace, and tiny white spring flowers that make the air smell like May. I get strong hints of vanilla frosting, notably that could be connected to the creamy, thick mouthfeel. The honey is fairly strong, it even hints at being like a cyser. 

The cider has medium acidity and medium bubble that fades fast. There are no tannins to speak of.  I appreciate the clean and bready funk, because it adds a needed second dimension, and a note to the finish.  The cider pairs very well with a salty snack. It’s fun, drinkable, friendly and extroverted.

CiderCon Part 2 including Heritage Cider Tasting with Foggy Ridge, Eve's Cidery, Castle Hill, and Dragon's Head Cider

Before I get into the rest of my CiderCon highlights, I do want to share a few facts I've learned about this year's event. Baltimore's convention hosted 1100 people from 12 countries and 41 states. Wow! That's fantastic attendance, and the number one thing that shocks people when they ask me about CiderCon. No one expects it to be this populated. I think folks must under-estimate the devotion cider inspires!

Also, if you haven't read Part 1: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/02/cider-con-2018-pt-1-eden-specialty.html

My Friday started with an amazing panel, “Heritage Cider: Keys to Success in this Next Growth Category.” Diane Flint of Foggy Ridge Cider (https://foggyridgecider.com/) led this talk with verve, humor, and a compelling argument. Flint used pictures of her home state of Virginia to start in on the connection of land to cider, but soon used what at first seemed like a little local color with pictures of church signs to make her largest point. One sign said “Repent,” and Flint took us on a little etymological journey about the word. The takeaway was that to repent means to think again.

Flint used this theme to discuss several facets of heritage cider: orchards, format, style, and sales. What I appreciate is that she didn't just bring her own perspective as a talented cidermaker and business owner, but also brought on folks affiliated with on and off premise sales as well as Autumn Stoscheck of Eve's Cidery. Stoscheck has been growing her We also tasted a few heritage ciders

Eve's Cidery: Autumn's Gold

https://www.evescidery.com/

Three significant cider apples adding to this blend include Ellis, Dabinette, and Yarlington Mill. This cider was generous with smoky and overripe apple aromatics. Autumn's gold is a champagne style cider that has undergone two fermentations, spent nine months on the lees, and was finished with hand disgorgement. Like many Finger Lakes Ciders, much of the mouth feel comes from the double impression of high acids and medium to high tannins. The lingering finish on this cider totally wows me.

Castle Hill's Levity

https://www.castlehillcider.com/

The heritage fruit in the Levity includes Yarlington Mill, Golden Hornet, Dabinette and Albemarle Pippin. This cider spents time underground fermenting in amphora. Whatever they did, the resulting cider had more sparkling champagne-esque bubbles than anything in the champagne-style cider tasting the day before. Mesmerizing! I found it floral balanced with grassy. My primary experience was the duelling excitement of really strong bubbles with lippy, grippy tannins. There are almost no ciders in the world that do this tense and exciting combination like the Levity does.

Dragon's Head Cider Traditional Cider

http://www.dragonsheadcider.com/

This is an estate bittersweet cider. I enjoyed how it is a little yeasty and wild in its aromas. The most like an English cider in style, I found the Traditional astringent, bitter, and leathery. It is full of big big flavors and substantial body. It did have some excellent bubble in the mouthfeel. It's earthy, funky, with medium high acidity and wowza levels of tannins. This cider was a lot less fruity than the others in the tasting.

Hearing from not only cider producers but also from folks selling heritage cider both on and off premise made this panel well-rounded and persuasive. It had to be a highlight of the conference for certain!

Friday afternoon centered around the events planning and management panel: “Let's Get this Cider Party Started” with Jenn Smith, Eric Foster and Mattie Beason. In addition to having that adorable name and greeting us with cans of wonderful cider, this panel covered a hot topic of the conference.

This was a fantastic panel that packed the room with folks passionately eager to learn how to run events with their cideries. It said to me that if there's one area I think next year's Cider Con could meaningfully expand upon its this! One panel gave the audience a lot of help, but we were hungry for even more. Our speakers brough a pleasing variety of event experience to the stage including events large and small, for individual cideries, groups, and focuses that range, including, education, food and drink pairings, music, fund raising, and just enlivening slow week nights at a taproom.

Panelists gave answers to moderator questions that started out with the basics but included lots of real life stories and even got into some of the tricky stuff. How does one estimate how many people will show up for an even the first, second, or third time it happens. Audience members shared questions and got thoughtful answers that really showed the usefully different perspectives represented. It really makes me want to run some fun cider events up in the Finger Lakes!

Cider Con ended with a “New Zealand Cidermakers Panel” that led directly into the “Grand Tasting and Commencement Toast”. Here our guest cider makers from New Zealand answered questions from Ciderologist Gabe Cook (http://www.theciderologist.com) and from the audience.

 

My favorite of these was Wild all the Way by Peckhams Cider(https://peckhams.co.nz/). This cider is a bit non-traditional in that a third of the juice is from Comice pears. All of the New Zealand ciders showed some real stylistic differences from other cider regions; this was great for me to learn as I went into Cider Con 2018 with virtuall no knowledge of a New Zealand cider culture. I didn't even know what I was missing.

The evening continued with generous sharing and good times. I spent it at a Hawaiian fusion restaurant with cider friends old and new eating coconut milk lobster bisque and vegetable tempura. Delightful!

What's next you might, ask. The Gathering of the Farm Cideries in Albany!

https://www.facebook.com/events/327649811084399

At this sold out event, 17 New York State Cideries will be sampling there wares under one roof! I'll be on the scene with some beverage industry friends to scope and sip and tell you all about it!