Cider Review: Wayside Cider's The Underhill

We’ve almost arrived at the most fickle and longed for season of the year. Yes, I know die hard Autumn fans, and for a very long time it was my undisputed favorite as well. I think I took Spring for granted growing up in rural Kentucky. It was lovely, blossoming and green every year. Now that I live in upstate New York, spring can be six weeks of wonder or it can be a bonus blizzard in April three days before temperatures hit the 70s. I anticipate Spring for weeks, enjoying all the little previews that last for 20 minutes or a couple of days. Even the muddy messy gritty parts of Spring feel precious. And they are almost here.

To celebrate the impending arrival of this capricious season, I opened up a cider from a company I don’t see very often. This is my very first review of a Wayside Cider! Folks from the cidery were kind enough to share a couple of bottles with me for review, and this is the first of them: Wayside Cider’s The Underhill!

Reading about Wayside online paints a rollicking and very land-focused identity. The cidery is based out of the Catskills in New York; it has operated since 2014. Irene Hussey and Alex Wilson founded this small cidery out of a garage (the first home for many a cidery). The company focuses on using American apples often heirloom varietals or foraged fruit. I first encountered Wayside Cider at the Gathering of the Farm Cideries in Albany, but someday (post pandemic) I hope to make it to the tasting room!

You can check out everything that’s going on for Wayside Cider on the website:  http://www.waysidecider.com/. 

Here’s the official description for The Underhill.

"The Underhill Sparkling Cider is a blend of cider apples from the Fingerlakes. With floral and herbal notes of meyer lemon, tarragon, and a distinct minerality. Serve Chilled. Made & bottled by Wayside Cider in Delhi, New York. Bottle Conditioned Naturally Sparkling and Unfiltered. Alcohol 7.5% by volume.”  

The first thing that I noticed about The Underhill is the incredible design. The label and the bottle shape just help me to expect something elegant and modern yet rustic. Good design is such a treat.

Appearance: intense, lemon curd, cloudy 

This cider poured very differently from the first bit of the bottle to the last. It started transparent but ended up quite cloudy. That’s how unfiltered sparkling ciders usually go. The color reminded me of lemon curd with it’s shade of mellow rich yellow and delectable intensity.

Aromas: Mango, pineapple, minerals, sourness and nuts

I love being surprised by a cider at any stage, and these aromas did surprise me. The cider’s description led me to expect something more austere, but my first impressions of the Underhill were its tropical fruit notes like mango and pineapple. I did get some minerality and sourness, but the fruit was more prominent. I also found a surprising nutty note.

Dryness/sweetness: Dry

This is a dry cider with a massively different profile. This is a dry cider that will wake you up! Keep reading to find out more.

Flavors and drinking experience: very tannic, apricot, medium acidity, astringent

Okay, I promised to explain the unusual profile on this cider. Yes, it’s dry, but it’s tannins are just ferocious! The Underhill has only medium acidity, but between that, the dryness and its very tannic bite, the cider feels and tastes austere. It’s demanding but also rewarding. 

The cider is tight and angular, but not totally without fruit notes. I can taste apricot and pear but fruit isn’t the dominant element. I just keep being shocked by the astringence. The other flavor note that surprises me is note that reminds me of almonds and cherry blossoms at the same time.

Somehow the overall impression is one of wildness. I served it chilled but the cider somehow conveyed greater coldness than just its actual temperature.

Then I paired it with spicy ginger cookies. Zing! Wow! Ginger brings out some previously hidden citrus in the cider. I love it this way. What a fun pairing.

Cider Review: Awestruck Cider's Winter Solstice

This is the last post going live in February. It’s wintry now, but, before too terribly long, we’ll start to see some creeping signs of Spring. But for today, it’s snow, ice and gray skies. That certainly guided me to this week’s choice of ciders. I needed something extra rich and cozy.

When I saw Awestruck Ciders’ Winter Solstice at a local grocery store, I seized it immediately. Last year, I tried it but didn’t manage to get a review, so I jumped at this chance. Awestruck is a regional cidery, based out of Sydney, New York. The company was founded by Casey Vitti and Patti Wilcox. I first ran across Awestruck at The Gathering of the New York Farm cideries in Albany several years ago.

I have reviewed a few Awestruck ciders previously. Here’s the full list. 

Viking Sahti: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2020/04/cider-review-california-caboose-ciders.html

Hibiscus Ginger: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2015/10/cider-review-awestruck-premium-hard.html This cider made my top ten in 2015!

Dry Apple + Oak: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2019/10/cider-review-kite-and-strings-rose-17.html

Hometown Homicider: http://alongcameacider.blogspot.com/2018/10/cider-reviews-woodchuck-ciders-bubbly.html

I encourage you to learn more by visiting Awestruck online: https://www.awestruckciders.com/Index

Now for my cozy time with Winter Solstice. I love the official description. 

A cider for long, cold nights.

6.8% ABV

750ml Bottle

Some of us here at Awestruck think winter is the best. Most of us don't. So we set out to concoct an elixir that could transform arctic dark and dreary into a magical wonderland of glittery snowflakes and cozy fireplaces. Just like the night sky in winter, this cider is endlessly dark and sparkling. Made with a luscious blend of apples and blackcurrants, each sip offers a bouquet of flavor and color sure to awaken your hibernating senses.

Appearance: Intense color, pinot noir, transparent no visible bubbles

This cider shocked me when I poured it. The color is among the most intense I’ve ever seen. It looks like a cold-climate pinot noir in the glass. I don’t see visible bubbles either. 

Aromas: Sugared plums, minerals, dust, black cherry, apple and raspberry

Whoa! The Winter Solstice smells like sugared plums! Now I’m thinking about Christmas all of a sudden The cider smells aggressively minerally and dusty. Also, there are notes of black cherry, raspberry apple and definitely black currant. The aromas are medium in their intensity. I don’t have to put my nose in the glass to find them, but they don’t come wafting up to me either.

Sweetness/dryness: sweet

This cider is sweet! But nicely so.

Flavors and drinking experience: big mouthfeel, high acid, blackberry, apple, and currant

The Winter Solstice is a bold and enveloping cider. I feel scooped up and held in a furry warm hug. The cider brings high acid, big mouthfeel, and a rich sweetness along with lots of fruit flavors. The cider offers bountiful blackberry and apple notes along with lots of wild and tangy black currant.

I love what an exuberant cider this is! It does feel warming, playful, and cozy. It’s sweeter than I would want most of the time, but I understand the need for this cider to be emphatic in all directions, including sweetness. If you see this limited edition cider, scoop one up and try it! I paired mine with the latest episode of WandaVision and some tasty popcorn, highly recommended!

Gathering of the New York Farm Cideries: Nine Pin Ciderworks, Treasury Cider, Awestruck Cider, and Descendant Cider Co.

This past Saturday, I bundled some friends who happen to be fellow cider nerds into the car to make the trek up to Albany for the Fourth Annual Gathering of the Farm Cideries. For a little background, this is a New York even that Nine Pin hosts yearly to celebrate the birthday of their own business, but also to celebrate a whole generation of young NY cideries that operate under New York's Farm Cidery license. Nine Pin was the first to open as an official NY Farm Cidery, so it makes all the sense in the world that they gather everyone to Albany. I love that these cider companies are forming a community and sharing their huge range of beverages with the public together. This is crucial cider education!

Each year, more cideries work under this license and are thus eligible to take part. This year around 17 cider companies participated by setting up a table, sampling, introducing and selling their ciders under one warehouse roof. That's one of the things I love about the gathering. Some of these operations are either quite young or quite small, and many self distribute to a very limited local area. This may be the only chance many people have to buy anything from Roger's Cideryard(https://www.facebook.com/RogersCideryard/), and it was assuredly my first tasting with Ithaca's newest cider producer: New York Cider Co. (https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkCiderCompany/).

When we arrived, about 20 minutes after doors were due to open, there was already a line stretching around the corner from the cidery's entrance. One of the things to note about Ninepin is their extensive and agile menu of limited release ciders. Several of these are only ever available in their tap room and only around for a short time. These run the gamut from this year's Ashmead's Kernel single-varietal to the wildly inventive such as their Blueberry Peach Cobbler. And I think their adventurousness has rubbed off on Albany's cider scene more generally, hence the folks waiting for doors to open on Saturday.

Once inside I tasted and chatted and listened to what other folks were saying about the sold-out event.

I didn't get to try everything; I never manage to, but I did find several things to take home. But here are four highlights of what I did get to try.

Nine Pin Ciderworks,

http://www.ninepincider.com

Cascara Nectar

This is a soon to be officially released cider and it was astounding! Cascara is the berry of the coffee plant, but this cider struck me as tart and spicy more than anything else. This cider is the result of a collaboration between Nine Pin and Joe Bean Coffee Roasters. It uses Cascara Coffee Cherry Tea and the hulks of Bolivian Cascara fermented with New York State Apples. I bought a four pack of cans to take home because this spicy, fruity, high acid cider exhibits what I love about experimental ciders. The apple flavor remains present but does something new with these additional flavors.

Here's a link to Joe Bean and Nine Pin's Release party coming up soon on February 24th: https://www.facebook.com/events/147819415930296/

Treasury Cider

http://www.treasurycider.com/

Burr Knot

The official description reads:

A careful mix of apples from our family orchard, Fishkill Farms, was selected to make the hard cider in this bottle. Heirloom varieties, proper harvest timing, ecological farming, and traditional wine-making methods all come together in our cider. Our name is an homage to the farm's founder Henry Morenthau Jr., who served as Secretary of the Treasury under FDR. It also celebrates the revival of hard cider in America.

Other descriptors include, “Dry and unfiltered / orchard cider / traditional method” and a list of apples, “Hyslop crab / Granny Smith / Pink Lady / Old-Growth Golden Delicious / Jonamac”

Wow! Just wow! I've had other ciders by this maker, but nothing in the past year. They've really matured and this cider shows their best qualities. Yes, I'm fond of a cider with crab apples, but the maker has to do know what to do with them. Treasury Cider certainly does!

Awestruck Cider

http://www.awestruckciders.com/

Lavender Hopped

I love their introduction to this cider.

Think of lavender and you imagine rows of sun-kissed purple, with a gentle scent of Mediterranean summer evenings. Our Lavender Hops is created to capture the same sensation of warm, fragrant summertime. We infuse our traditional hard cider with a secret blend of hops and sweet lavender. This adds a mildly bitter complexity which, together with the citrus and floral undertones, combines to produce a unique flavour. Like a summer evening, Lavender Hops is mellow - perfect for cider and beer drinkers alike

This one sold out entirely at the event! I loved it and one of my cider compatriots did too. The lavender tastes herbal without being soapy. The cider has zesty high acid that always goes well with hops. Its a balanced and full bodied cider. Other fruit notes were tropical fruit and berries.

Descendant Cider Co.

http://www.descendantcider.com/

Dry

The limited release Descendant Dry is introduced like this by the cidery,

DESCENDANT DRY (6.9%) - 2016 Harvest availableDry" has strong ripe apple aromas and bright acidity balanced with bittersweet tannin. It is medium body and bone dry. It also has bright appearance as a result of the aging process.

What I like about this cider is both its body and its balance. It has some zesty acidity, mild astringence, and soft tannins. It also had some floral and spicy characteristics that really add to its complexity. Yum! I also picked up a few of their other ciders for future tasting.

Overall, it was a wonderful day. Yes, there were cider donuts! Nine Pin Ciderworks really knows how to host this event well. They managed a big crowd and avoided many of the common pitfalls to such events. I had a fantastic time and only wish I could visit these cider folks more often.