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 The apples in our orchard are ecologically grown using Integrated Pest Management methods. The orchard is on the land beside our home: we tend it closely through the seasons.
We are ‘artisanal’ cider makers. To us, ‘artisanal’ means an enterprise small enough so that the farmer or craftsman is the working and guiding force behind what is grown and made. This is true of West County Cider and the ciders we ferment.
We grow apple varieties that are particularly suited for cider. We make ciders that we want to drink: we believe cider should offer pleasure. Our ciders are made with locally grown apples, tied to the land, to New England and its past and to the vibrant community of cidermakers around the globe.
Harvest 2006Each year our cider selection changes. The year’s vagaries — winter’s cold, spring’s advance, blossom, one’s attention, and nature’s miracle — determine the character and yields of the fruit. 2006 brought an outstanding harvest. The sugars were higher than they have ever been, and the flavors full. This year’s Roxbury Russet finished with an alcohol of 8.3%. In the past, we have never had much more than 7% and that in a fully dry cider. A new block of trees came into bearing with a roar, giving us more varieties to ferment. The Reine de Pomme, after a few years of light crops, gave us a full crop, and a cider we haven’t had for a few years.
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DRY
BALDWIN
A single variety cider, it is fermented to dryness while undergoing a malic-lactic fermentation. This rounds the usual sharp edge of a bone dry cider. Alcohol 5.9%
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PIPPIN
CIDER
First an explanation. Tremletts Bitter and Yarlington Mill are classic English bittersweets. It was high on the list of apples recommended to us by R. R. Williams at the Long Ashton Cider Research station in the early 1980’s. We found scion wood in a reference orchard of cider varieties planted in the early 1900’s. We tried them, liked them, and have made a succession of plantings, the last in 2004.
These apples make a lovely cider, bringing notes of bright fruit and tartness. Now, tartness isn’t something you find in a bittersweet apple, and terroir doesn’t explain such a massive difference. Well -informed sources have told us that our Yarlington Mill and Tremletts do not look like their namesakes, nor resemble any European cider apple. Our guess is that they are really seedlings- that the graft of scion to seedling didn’t take, and the rootstock became the tree. At that time, most grafting was done onto seedlings.
Seedlings are unnamed varieties grown from apple seeds (Pippins). Their fruit rarely resembles that of the parent trees nor of each other. The tastes vary wildly, but frequently make good cider. John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) grew seedlings in his nurseries for the early settlers. Settlers used these young apple trees to establish their land claims and to make cider. Trees that produced worthy fruit were propagated and often named “Pippin”. Until this year, we have called this cider ‘Tremlett’s. Despite their obscure parentage, our ‘Pippins’ make good cider and deserve cultivation. Alcohol 6.3%.
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REDFIELD
We found the Redfield on a leisurely walk through the reference orchard at the New York Agricultural Experimental Station at Geneva. We were sampling apples as we walked, taking a bite, and then tossing them. The Redfield stopped us cold. There was the taste: unusually tannic, bright fruit, and acid. Then there was the color: deep red skin, brilliant scarlet flesh. We picked enough for a test batch, and have been planting and making Redfield ever since. This year’s Redfield is soft and rounded. The taste seems to reflect the color. A lovely summer drink, lightly chilled. Alcohol 5.3%
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REINE
DE POMME
Reine de Pomme is an archaic French Apple. We found it in the Geneva Reference Orchard. In 1987, in France, the only reference to it we found was a listing in a nursery catalog from the 1920’s at an apple museum in Normandy. No one seemed to know of
it. Alcohol 7.7%
But, forgotten or not, we were struck by the taste- tannins and iron- that made it inedible, but intriguing for a cider. As a cider it has a deep, dark-fruit, honeyed taste. This year a new block of trees bore fruit, and the older trees did uncommonly well. We blended it with our Dabinett to round out the tannins, and Redfield to add bright fruit and to balance to the bitter-sweets. Though blended, Reine de Pomme leads the taste, and the Dabinet and Redfield fall in nicely as supports. It is the fullest bodied cider we have made. Alcohol 6.3%
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BALDWIN
Once popular, now rare, Baldwin Apples have long been prized for the making of hard cider. The Baldwins in this cider come from trees planted in the early 1900's. This cider is smooth and crisp. It is our most popular cider. Alcohol 5.3%.
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HERITAGE
APPLE
The closest in taste to a French Cider that we have, this cider blends Baldwin, Roxbury Russet and a mix of European cider apples. Once common, now rare, these American and European apples have long been favored for cider. The Baldwin was discovered by Leomi Baldwin as he surveyed the Middlesex Canal in eastern Massachusetts in the 1700’s. Roxbury Russet is America's first named apple variety, from the 1600’s. The European varieties, some from the distant past, add tannins to this full bodied cider. Alcohol 6.3%.
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ROXBURY
RUSSET
Sometime in the 1600’s, the Roxbury Russet was discovered and named after the farming town in which it was found, outside of Boston. It has the distinction of being the first named apple in this country. It was widely planted throughout New England, and still can be found.This cider is entirely Roxbury Russet. In the past we have blended Russets into our other ciders. They are excellent blending apples. Then we started fermenting a mix of Golden, Colrain and Roxbury Russets and found they made intriguing cider by themselves. Nothing flashy, but subtle and rich. Next we started fermenting the Russet varieties separately, and differences started emerging. Now we offer an unblended Russet. The difference is subtle. The cider continues as a rich, full-flavored cider: dry, mineral with soft tannins. One more note: at harvest, the sugars in the apple were the highest we have seen, and, predictably, the alcohol is the highest we have had in our ciders. Alcohol 8.3%
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RUSSET
CIDER
All that we say above about the Roxbury applies here, except that this is a blend that includes Roxbury, Golden and Colrain Russets, as well as European Russets- -Merton and Ashmead’s Kernel. It has a classic Russet taste, slightly less dry than the Roxbury, and more pronounced tannins. Alcohol 7.7%
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PECKVILLE
SWEET
This cider is made from Cortland apples organically-grown in the Peckville section of Shelburne. The sweetness results from a short fermentation of fresh pressed apples leaving a pleasant amount of residual sugar from the apple. No sugar or concentrate is added to our hard ciders. Cortland is not usually regarded as a cider apple, particularly as a single variety apple, but we have found it makes a pleasing cider. Alcohol 3.8%.
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BLUEBERRY-APPLE
WINE
West County Blueberry-Apple is dry enough to drink with food and sweet enough for sipping. The apples are fresh-pressed. The wild, no-spray blueberries are gathered from Burnt Hill in Heath, a neighboring town. Pokumtuck Indians camped in these highlands to harvest the midnight blue fruit. Small, plump, and sweet-acid, the berries grow low to the ground, hidden in thick shrub. Tenacious survivors, they thrive despite cold winters and rocky soil. Alcohol 7%
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