Celebrating BC Cider Week? Try These…
This BC Cider Week we stretched our palate with three very different ciders.
Creek & Gully ‘Century’ Cider
Annelise Simonsen and Kaleigh Jorgensen are friends turned sisters-in-laws and co-owners of the Naramata Cidery, Creek & Gully. The two, along with newly hired cider-maker Alyssa Hubert, focus on making natural non-interventionalist cider using the C-grade, or ‘ugly,’ fruit from Simonsen’s apple orchard. The orchard has been a part of the family for generations – Simonsen is the 5th generation – and the apples used to make ‘Century’ are from Red Delicious apple trees planted 106 years ago by her great-great-grandfather Hans Salting. Mixed with Jonagold and Dolgo Crab apples, this cider is floral, dry, fruity and a little bit funky.
Tave’s Gooseberry Cider
Taves in Abbotsford is another multi-generational farm that is best known for its Applebarn experience and soft apple cider, but the Taves family have branched into hard cider making with Taves Estate Cidery. They’ve released a line of barnyard animal themed ciders like Billy’s Best Apple Cider and Rooster’s Red Currant Cider. We’ve taken them all down, but our favourite is Gander’s Gooseberry Cider. It’s not quite as dry and funky as the Billy’s, but the gooseberry adds a tartness that made us pucker up and take notice.
La Petite Abeille Pear Cider
La Petite Abeille cidery is new to Naramata and only opened it’s doors a few weeks back in July. Specializing in French cider-making style, where ciders are more akin to sparkling wine, the new cidery has focused on pear and apple ciders with their signature cider being a Pear Charmat made with champagne yeast and Bartlett pears. The result is an extremely crisp and bubbly cider. It’s a bit above our pay grade at $40 per 750 ml bottle, so we opted to take home the more pedestrian pear cider at $25. The bubbles aren’t quite as tight as the Charmat, which allows for more pear notes to creep through while maintaining that dry finish.
You Might Also Like
From The Earth Is New On The Shelf
This new local spice blend company is making it easy to eat South Asian food at home, and we like it.
Fire, Meat, And Amola Salt
We meet up with Eric Pateman to talk Amola Salt, the closure of Edible Canada, and how he’s taking local to the world.
The Latest Lockdown Sends Restaurants And Suppliers Back Into Pivot Mode
Restaurants aren’t the only ones having to pivot after the latest lockdown implemented by the BC Government.