Cider Review: Farnum Hill Summer Cider

I cannot believe I've been keeping a cider blog for nine whole months without talking about any Farnum Hill Ciders. This is a grievous error on my part not only because they have played such a pivotal role in America's cider renaissance (which they undoubtedly have), but also because they were one of my early cider life-lines when I came back to the United States after trying and enjoying ciders during my study abroad at the University of East Anglia. (Here's my mostly unrelated shout out with affection to my nefarious guides to the wonderful world of pubs and cider, the UEA Games Soc.) Anyhow, I've been enjoying their ciders for almost ten years, so this review should have come earlier.

Farnum Hill Ciders come from Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, New Hampshire. They make many ciders and sell apples, including unusual varieties of apples that are otherwise hard to come by. You can visit their fabulously informative website at: http://www.povertylaneorchards.com. Stephen M. Wood and Louisa D. Spencer have run and owned Poverty Lane Orchards since its start in 2000. These folks are serious about apples, science, and cider. I highly recommend checking out their Cider Facts page to learn some interesting things about apples and climate and also to get a good feel for the brand's unique personality. http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/farnum-hill-cider-basics/  Fascinating stuff; I certainly didn't know anything about "Dosage" before reading about it there.

Before summer ends, I want to review Farnum Hill Summer Cider.  This cider has an ABV of 7.8% and like all Farnum Hill Ciders prides itself on using carefully chosen blended and cider apples. Rather than list their entire three paragraph orientation to the cider, I'll point my readers to it here: http://www.povertylaneorchards.com/farnum-hill-ciders/the-ciders/summercider/
and quote a bit about the cider itself. The folks at Farnum Hill say this, "Farnum Hill Summer Cider is golden and gently sparkling, blended to remind people in the States that good ciders make ideal summer “wines,” something the wider world never forgot. So in this one we go for prominent fruit and keen acid, soft-pedaling the tannic, earthy notes common to the other FHC blends. In Summer Cider the fruits are rich, the citrusy notes are strong, with gentle sweetness in the background. It’s a bit like whiskey sours, without the alcoholic whack."I'm not quite sure the digs at both United States drinkers and whiskey sours need to be there, but I'll be on the lookout for the acidity and lightness specifically.

Appearance: brilliant, cool blonde

Please forgive me for thinking of this cider's color as one of Alfred Hitchcock's leading ladies (specifically Tippi Hedron in The Birds), but that's always what cool blonde says to me. This Summer Cider has visible bubbles, most dissipate fast, but small fine streams continue through the liquid. Beautiful brilliance as well.

Aromas: fresh apples, banana, cake

Apple smells definitely come through first and foremost. The secondary fruits I sense most are banana and blueberry.  I could also detect bits of cake and walnut. This smells like a complex and lovely buffet of sweet flavors, but we'll see if the cider is as fruity and sweet as it smells.

Sweetness: Semi-dry to Off-dry

Actually separating the sweetness from other elements of enjoying this cider is fairly difficult. I can smell sweet fruits, but the taste is far more bright and acidic. It is definitely not bone dry, but it isn't a semi-sweet either. I'll say a gentle off dry or a more hardcore semi-dry. Hopefully that's not too confusing.

Flavors and Drinking Experience: high acidity, low to medium tannins, off-dry 

The Summer Cider tastes good to sip, but it tastes even better in big drinks. The flavors come in two distinct waves: first sweet, bright, second is dark, bitter, plummy flavor at the mid-back of the tongue.  Clean finish. The acidity is what makes it summery, and it contributes to the sense of  near dryness while also offering some enjoyable fruitiness. This is one of the lightest bodied ciders they make, perhaps the Summer Cider is giving a nod to the Spanish cider tradition.

I can definitely recommend this cider with all sorts of light summery foods and activities. Try the Summer Cider with bruschetta and fresh corn or lobster rolls. Bring a glass to a hammock, sneak a bottle into your canoe, eat a few more dinners outside with this cider before the weather gets too cold. Fall is coming soon, and I think Farnum Hill is more than right to think of this cider as uniquely suited to summertime. Whatever version they make each year, they attempt to make it available May through September where their other ciders are sold.  If you see this one, give it a try.

Last review before the big move! Cider Review: Querry?

As with all moves, part of getting ready to go is taking care of what you've been putting off. I'm afraid this review falls under that category.

I tried Bonny Doon Vineyard's 2011 Querry? on a recommendation from a wine store with a significant cider selection. The beverage is a fermented blend of apple, pear, and quince juices. Hence the question mark. When I tried it, I had two dedicated beer drinkers and my husband with me. We all had different opinions and enjoyed ourselves tremendously trying something so unusual. What I forgot to do though was take any pictures. I'm using promotional images from Bonny Doon, so you will at least get a peek at the super fun label. 

Bonny Doon Vineyards, from everything I can tell is a creative, experiemental, light-hearted vineyard in California with a good sense of fun and graphic design. You can check this out for yourself at their website: https://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com. Their leader, Randall Grahm, seems like a likeable interesting fellow. His blog can be found here: http://www.beendoonsolong.com.

The 2011 Querry? has an ABV of 6.9%. The summary Bonny Doon provides is full of both charm and useful information, so I'll quote it extensively. "¿Querry? A Getrunkenexperiment. Query: What might a blend of apple, pear, and quince taste like naturally fermented (with indigenous yeast)? Result (not surprisingly): The ethereal suggestion of pineapple quince; the pungent, heady, dusky perfume of pear; and the earthy succulence of apple. I never thought I'd see... a pome as lovely as Querry. Crisp in acidity and bone dry, Querry is the perfect accompaniment to, well, essentially everything. It is composed of virtually everything, but most significantly: 58% pear, 33% apple, and 9% quince. Excellent with charcuterie, Asian food, seafood, and poultry—fare as humble as meat pie or as elegant as lobster. Querry pears with everything. Open very carefully, as contents are under some pressure." From what I understand this last warning is significant, the first batch of querry had bottle fermentation that was just a bit too vigorous and exploded many bottles. Not an uncommon problem, as I'm learning in various cider communities.

 Then they give a whole new batch of information formatted in way I'm less used to seeing. Is this wine people talk? I don't honestly know. But the information is good, so again I'll just pass it along and let readers take it as they will.

Vital Statistics:
Alcohol by Volume: 6.9%
Ingredients: 58% pear, 33% apple, 9% quince
Appellation: 91% California, 9% Oregon
TA: 6.1 g/L
pH: 3.53
Serving Temp: 58º F
Cellaring: 0-2 years from release (Nov. 2012)
Production: 285 cases
Label Art: Chuck House

Color and Appearance: brilliant, mild white gold

This cider pours with a gentle frothy head around the edges. The color is very subtle and the clarity is as brilliant as can be.

Aromas: pineapple (quince?), pear, all ripe, candy

Querry smells fruity and sweet. My beer expert detected a bit of a phenolic or chemical note under the blend of fruits, and once my attention was drawn in that direction I could sense a hint of that. Mostly though we all picked up on the plethora of different fruits in play. It smells totally distinct from either a traditional perry or cider.

Sweetness:  Semi-dry

Though the label says "bone dry" everyone in our group would call it semi-dry. It certainly has the pleasant maturity that comes with good levels of dryness, but it also has some sweetness and plenty of fruitiness.

Flavors: grapefruit, other citrus, pineapple

This querry definitely takes after the Spanish cider that inspire it with its high acid level and low tannins. Citrus flavors dominated my early sips, then the fruity metallic pineapple notes joined in.  My husband noted how much of the flavors are notable on the gums and the sides of the tongue. Truly unusual and rather exciting.

Drinking experience: effervescent, clean, shifts into mild breadiness

Querry tastes extremely carbonated—outright foamy in larger sips.  It disappears in an ultra-clean finish. I experienced almost no aftertaste. It's mouthfeel is very light, but after many sips, this cider accumulates a soft, bready aftertaste of mild yeast and sugar. This is actually more like what I associate with cider than the super quick clean finish. More fruits come out and play when you take a larger sip and hold it in your mouth for a little while.

This is a great conversation cider. I highly recommend tasting it in a group and perhaps grouped with a few other ciders of varying styles. Highlight what is unusual and special about the Querry? rather than asking it to be something it is not. That's the best way to approach and enjoy it.

I also think it gives American cider drinkers a truly interesting variant because this does not aim for the English or French styles that we see more often. It doesn't taste like a traditional Spanish Sidra, but it belongs more to that tradition of cider making than to most of what I've tasted. I have a feeling that as more and more cideries add to their lineups that we'll see more and more ciders that take their inspiration from more styles. This is an early moment of adventure and exploration.