Showing posts with label Applewood Winery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Applewood Winery. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2014

#TasteCamp Explores #HudsonValley #Cider


From numerous trips to Greenwood Lake, I've become very familiar with two Hudson Valley cider makers, Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery & Applewood Winery. The former produces apple and pear ciders under the Doc’s Draft Ciders brand, while the latter recently introduced their Naked Flock ciders which replaced their Apple Dave's Stone Fence Cider. TasteCamp presented a few opportunities to expand my Hudson Valley cider experience -- starting with a trade tasting at Robibero Family Vineyards.

Among the various wineries at Robibero, Bad Seed Cider Company was pouring their inaugural release: Dry Hard Cider (6.3% abv, $12). The ciderie is co-owned by Devin Britton and Albert Wilklow, a 6th generation apple farmer. Devon is the cider maker - having a history of fermenting anything that would make a tasty beverage. Their Dry Hard Cider was clean, tart, and refreshing and hearing that they produced other styles incited me to visit on Sunday. The taproom was only a week old, yet there was already a decent crowd on my arrival. Devin was pouring four Bad Seed ciders as well as guest ciders from other Hudson Valley producers. I stuck with a sampler of his Dry, Cherried Away, Mapled Monk, and Blueberry. The Cherried Away was easily my favorite, basically the Dry fermented with tart sour cherries. This is one tasty cider. It took a few sips to start to appreciate the Mapled Monk, which is their Belgian Abbey augmented with a touch of maple syrup. There's a bit of funk from being unfiltered and inoculation with Belgian abbey beer yeast. Very interesting.  Expect a lot more of these artisan ciders - I hear there's a bourbon-maple combo on the horizon.


During day 2, our host, Carlo Devito, sponsored another Hudson Valley tasting at his Hudson-Chatham Winery. Among the participants were several cideries including the above mentioned Doc's Draft and Naked Flock. Our host poured an almost cider - the Old Orchard Sparkling Apple Wine which resembled a sparkling cider (clean, effervescent, with a nice tart finish), but it came in at 10.7% abv - too high to be labeled a cider.

Another participant was Orchard Hill Cider Mill, from New Hampton and using fruit from Soons Orchard. They produce still and sparkling cider, the latter using méthode champenoise, whereas  both styles are bottle fermented and unfiltered. Their traditional Red and Gold labels (still vs sparkling) are clean and dry with the Red Label (7.25% abv, $10) having some toasted apple elements. The Gold Label (8% abv, $18) is slightly sweeter and lighter. Orchard Hill also introduced us to their Ten66 brand - the Jerry Lee Lewis of ciders - the killer. Named for the year of the Normandy invasion of Britain and inspired by that region's Pommeau de Normandi, both the Red and Gold labels are delicious. The Red Label (20% abv, $30 375 ml) is mixed with apple brandy distilled from Soons Orchard apples  and aged in French oak wine barrels. The aged brandy is then blended with fresh unfermented Soons' cider and returned to the barrel for extra aging. The result is a tart apple pie flavor with vanilla and nutmeg on the tail. The Ten66 Golden Barrel (20% abv, $30 375 ml) is even better, brandy distilled in 2005 combined with fresh juice and barreled in 2009 - a single barrel mistelle. Not a cider, but one of the best ciderie beverages on the market.


One of the most interesting collection of ciders the entire weekend was poured by Aaron Burr Cidery. These were apple and pear ciders from uncultivated fruit - foraged from wild or abandoned orchards in the Catskills. The apples and pears are small and mangled - providing more skin contact in relation to juice. The Homestead Ciders are fermented using native yeast and unfiltered to create a cider style that was consumed when the country was founded. Obviously these are very small productions, maybe 100 cases, and extremely unique and tasty. Aaron Burr also produces an Appinette (8.4% abv) cider using 30% Finger Lakes Traminette grapes and 70% Orange County (NY) apples. It comes off dry, effervescent, with a tart - slightly bitter finish. Cheers for pulling these off; Aaron Burr ciders are highly recommended.

There are more cideries in the Hudson Valley waiting for my next trip. Hope to visit or taste Kettleborough Cider House, Annadale Cidery, Slyboro Cider House, and Breezy Hill Orchard & Cider Mill soon. Cheers.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wine Blogging Wednesday #77: “A Glass (of cider) After A Bad Day At Work”

Our friend, Alleigh at A Glass After Work hosts Wine Blogging Wednesday #wbw77 this month and the topic, “A Glass After A Bad Day At Work”. Normally, after a particularly bad day at work I hit the whiskey or rum when I return home. But since the weather has warmed and I've been commuting by bicycle, the hard stuff isn't as satisfying. I tried beer and yes that can be a thirst quencher - but it doesn't alleviate the tensions from a tough day.  Then, one day I reached for a Foggy Ridge Cider First Fruit cider. Immediately the apple flavors calmed my nerves, while the acidity was as refreshing as a malt beverage. I instantly relaxed - who cares about work? The next week I tried the Foggy Ridge Cider Serious Cider. This cider is lighter than the First Fruit but produced similar results.  I'm now stocking up on ciders: Albemarle CiderWorks and Applewood Winery now in the fridge; and will be adding cider from Castle Hill Cider, Distillery Lane Ciderworks, Great Shoals Winery, and planning trips into New York and Pennsylvania. Any suggestions?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Visiting the Shawangunk Wine Trail: Applewood Winery

Ever since our visit to Foggy Ridge Cider for the MyJoogTV Episode 9: Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band @ Foggy Ridge Cider episode, we've been on a hard cider kick. And what better way to feed that habit, but through a tour of apple country in New York's Hudson Valley and the Shawangunk Wine Trail. The trail consists of eleven wineries, with a few producing hard cider from the regions abundant apple crop. We started out intending to visit Warwick Valley Winery & Disillery, but found the roads blocked because of storm damage from Hurricane Irene. Having a limited time schedule, we reversed course to the next closest winery in Warwick, Applewood Winery. This farm winery is the oldest continually operated farm in the county and still contains a stone that bears an inscription of the first owner's initials ("SGS 1700"). The current operation began in the 1950's when the land was purchased by the Hull family and apple trees planted to create Applewood Orchards. In 1993 Jonathan Hull expanded the apple farm to include a winery and plantings of vinifera, labrusca and hybrid and grape varieties.

On our visit, we were surprised to find a packed parking lot; surprised because of the seclusion of the farm. They have gotten the word out; plus there was live music scheduled for later that afternoon. The winery offers a large selection of wines, from Chardonnay, Reisling, and Cabernet Franc to Traminette and Concord. And plenty of Apple wine and hard cider; actually sparkling hard cider, the semi-dry Stone Fence Cider made from fermented estate apples, honey, and champagne yeast. This was all we needed, purchasing one cold and two to bring home. Even though we prefer dry cider and brut sparklers, this cider was nice and refreshing -on that 90 degree day. The apple flavors bounced through the palette with the honey providing a touch of sweetness at the finish. And at $8.25, what a fair value. We didn't sample the other wines, but enjoyed the bottle of Stone Fence Cider before returning to Greenwood Lake.

On the rise back, we stopped at Friendly Beer & Soda Corporation to grab some local beer and to our surprise, found bottles Warwick Valley Winery & Disillery hard cider proudly displayed on the register counter. We took home bottles of the Doc's Draft Hard Apple Cider and the
Doc's Draft Hard Pear Cider. The pear was wonderful, dry-dry-dry; and with plenty of pear flavors. The apple was made semi-dry and had a similar flavor profile as the Stone Fence Cider minus the CO2. Despite the slight sweetness, it was clean and refreshing. The reason why we love hard cider.