Taste your way through Pacific Northwest orchards and discover your new favorite cider apple varietals with the NW Cider Club’s September 2021 release. This limited-release box includes four 750 ml bottles of elevated ciders showcasing the heart and core of cider – APPLES. Sign up by 8/18/21.
Apples – arguably one of the most diverse, adaptive and celebrated fruits on earth – are the heart and core of cider. From soil to rootstock, climate to growing conditions, nature determines what the cidermaker has to work with. Apple variety largely determines available acid and tannin levels, just like grape varieties do in wine. In this club release we explore the world of cider, diving deeper into apple varietals.
The Elevated Cider Club Apple Varietals release includes the 4 ciders listed below. This release is $77 plus shipping and handling. Email club@nwcider.com for a shipping estimate.
The Discover & Elevated Cider Club Apple Varietals release includes 4 Elevated and 6 Discover ciders and is $130 plus shipping and handling.
Join the club and start exploring varietals.
Freewater Cider Co
Opal 7.9% abv (750ml) ~ Apples: Opal
Situated in the north eastern Oregon town of Milton-Freewater, with only 7,000 residents, Freewater Cider crafts a number of single varietal ciders all oak barrel aged for a minimum of six months to integrate tannins and enhance mouth feel.
Freewater Opal is a small batch, hard to find 100% single varietal Opal apple cider. Made from crossing a Golden Delicious and a Topaz apple, Opal apples are a sunny yellow hue with a crunch texture and sweet, tangy flavor. Loved in the culinary world for not browning after cutting, Opals are the first U.S. apple variety to be verified by the Non-GMO Project, the only independent verification in North America for non-GMO food.
This cider has intense aromatics of pineapple, Asian pear and lychee on the nose. Rich, tropical fruit flavors of star fruit and key lime combined with mild acidity, provides for a lingering and refreshing finish. This cider is unfiltered, barrel aged and has no added sugar.
Art + Science, Cider & Wine
Mountain Rose 7.2% abv (750ml) ~ Apples: Mountain Rose
Mountain Rose Cider from Art + Science Cider & Wine in Sheridan, Oregon has a stunning pink rose shaped label with birds on it. At Art + Science, Kim Hamblin is the artist behind this (and most of the gorgeous cider and wine labels) while her husband Dan Rinke oversees the science of fermentation. It’s easy to fall in love with Art & Science, because they put such authentic heart and soul into everything they do. This single varietal is made from biodynamically grown apples fermented with native yeast.
The Mountain Rose apple, discovered by Bill Schulz near the town of Airlie in western Oregon, has magnificent pink blooms in the spring, large greenish-yellow apples with a crisp, inside red flesh, and a delicious sweet-tart flavor. Barrel fermented and barrel aged for 10 months in neutral oak, this cider’s tasting notes read: pretty, vinous, high acid, a tiny bit sweet, clean. And because we know every apple grows differently, the back label notes, “Caution: Pink fleshed apples won’t always result in pink cider.”
Runcible Cider
Crab Nebula 7.3% abv (750ml) ~ Apples: Golgo, Wickson Crabs, wild foraged crabs and Newtown Pippin
Runcible Cider is on the rocky prairie of Mosier, Oregon, with a big sky and big views across the Columbia River Gorge. An apple friendly growing region, the Gorge has a rich geologic history of volcano flow and Missoula flood, powerful carving from the Columbia river and a strong four-season climate.
Runcible grows cider apple varieties, with an eye to making dry, refreshing ciders, occasionally blended with the abundant fruit grown in the area. Making small, careful batches, using only the best fruit in season.
Runcible’s Crab Nebula is made with orchard crab apples blended with Newtown Pippins and other heritage apples. Crab apples are technically called such because of their size—small—and not their cultivar. Crab apples are sweet bombs with high acidity, and the high skin to flesh ratio provides good tannins, structure, and refreshment. This cider is naturally sparkled in the bottle and fermented to dry.
Centre Ring by Neigel Vintners
Private Reserve Hard Apple Cider: Porter's Perfection 5.7% abv (750ml) ~ Apples: Porter’s Perfection
Neigel Vinters is a family operation in East Wenatchee, run by Kevin Van Reenen. Kevin’s grandfather planted a small pear orchard in the Wenatchee Valley which inspired the business which mostly produces perry but we snagged one of their rare bottles of Private Reserve Centre Ring cider. This cider is handcrafted, blended and bottled in small batches.
Centre Ring Porter’s Perfection is a cider that offers an opportunity to explore a single varietal, an old English cider apple named for Charles Porter (1844 – 1932) from the southwestern English county of Somerset. Porter’s Perfection has stripes of red and a thick stem. This apple stands out in its tendency to form fused fruit, usually in twos, but sometimes three or more, producing a cider high in acid and tannins. This cider is deep amber in hue with weight and structured mouthfeel that can stand up to a meal of roast chicken, steak or portabella, accompanied by fresh greens crumbled with an herbed chevre.
