Horse & Plow is one of the growing number of California (and Sonoma County in particular) cideries that are making serious craft cider. Long time winemakers who only recently (2014) turned their attention to cider, Suzanne and Chris are making splendid ciders alongside their wines. Both are winemakers with experience making and selling wine. Cider… Read more »
There is a case to be made that the Kingston Black apple is the King of Cider Apples. It has long been recognized as one of the few apple varieties that possesses the requisite levels of tannins, acidity and sugar to create an outstanding cider without blending juice from different apple varieties. This begs the… Read more »
Ryan Burk joined Angry Orchard in the Fall of this year. Previously with Michigan’s Virtue Cider, Burk will head up cider making duties at Angry Orchard’s new experimental orchard-cidery-visitor center in Walden, New York. Ryan joined the juggernaut of the American cider world. Angry Orchard controls just over 50% of all cider sales in the… Read more »
Today we start a new series at The Cider Journal: “CiderViews”. The idea is to get a quick glimpse at the people behind your favorite ciders by asking them a series of 10 questions. The questions are both Cider-serious and not-so-Cider-serious. Those people who are actively moving cider forward in the American consciousness are a… Read more »
The genuine cider bar —that place where finely crafted cider in numerous styles is the whole point — is still a rarity, despite the renaissance in cider now taking place across the country. You can count them on two hands. Because there are so few of these temples devoted to the fermented apple, expectations run… Read more »
Bristols Cider from the Paso Robles region is one of the growing number of new California cideries looking to treat cider as seriously as the state treats its wine. And in the case of Bristols, that’s not hard. It is the sister company to Lone Madrone Winery, a well-respected Paso Robles winery. While it’s not… Read more »
Though we have addressed this issue before, it is worth repeating: It is important to the growing craft cider movement and to devotees of craft cider that cidermakers are legally able to place the harvest date on their bottles. This issue arises once again for the Cider Journal after hearing from one of America’s best… Read more »
What is a great cider? There are some who will argue this is the wrong question merely because it requires judgment and judgment is nothing more than personal preference. If they like it, if it pleases them, it is great. Ignore these people, at least where cider and questions of aesthetics are concerned. While you… Read more »
Oregon’s Finnegan Cider Company is one of the growing number of American cideries driven by the desires of its owners to produce something truly craft; truly authentic. In the case of Finnegan, this means, among other things, a dedication to using the tried and true cider apples that came to us from England and France…. Read more »
This post is about authenticity in cider. Apple orcharding is hard work. In fact, it’s so hard I am absolutely sure I’m completely unfit mentally and physically to even contemplate the idea. Now add to this the hand bottling, hand corking and hand bottle caging of the cider made from apples resulting from orcharding. Again,… Read more »
