Growing Cider

Fruit in the field carries a record of its experience.  
It remembers the nature of the soil its roots grasp.  
It stores up the wind and rain and sun that bathe it through the seasons.  
Ripe fruit bears testimony to Earth and Elements 
   - full, rich flavors and scents witness to the balance among them.

Without fruit there can be no wine.  Great wine REQUIRES great fruit.

Therefore, we carefully select our fruit and fruit growers.  
We look for well balanced, flavorsome fruit, bursting with potential.  
We look for fruit grown in places well suited for its nature and carefully tended.  
We believe this yields the best fruit, with more depth and subtlety of flavor and aroma.
And thus, the best wine.

From Field to Glass

	Design and Fermentation This is especially important for fruit wines.  Grapes are unsurpassed in suitability for winemaking.  No other fruit has the balance of sweet and tart, or the complexity of flavor.   This does not mean that other fruit don't make excellent wine - only that extra consideration must go into crafting fruit wines.  Initial imbalances among sugar (which makes alcohol), tartness, and flavor intensity must be addressed.  Fermentation factors, such as cold soaks, temperature, and yeast nutrition must also be considered.
	Cellaring We take a minimalist strategy.  We set up the best initial conditions we can, then let time (and gravity) do the rest.  Our ciders are not filtered - they are naturally clear. Some sediment may appear with further aging.  This is healthy.
	Special Processing Our sparkling ciders do get special treatment. They are hand processed by the traditional French techniques.  Stable, still wines are set to tirage - re-fermentation in the bottle to create carbonation and extract flavors from the yeast. They are then riddled (placed upside down in racks) to collect the yeast in the neck of the bottle.  To remove the yeast, bottles are disgorged. The yeast is frozen into an ice plug, then blown from the bottle under the force of its own carbonation.  A dosage is then added to sweeten the naturally very dry wine.