Cider Spotlight!

Albemarle CiderWorks Cidermaker’s Choice:
Small Batch #6 — Dabinett & Harrison

$18.99 for the 750ml bottle
Hard Apple Cider

We’re really enjoying Albemarle Ciderworks’ Cidermaker’s Choice Series. It’s fun to see them have fun with cider. Take the Small Batch No. 6. It’s a tale of two worlds, made from a new world apple (the Harrison) and an old world apple (the Dabinett).

The Harrison is an apple that should be (we think) Ablemarle Ciderworks’ signature apple. It was a much lauded cider apple in the 19th Century and then it was just … lost. Seriously, people thought it was gone until Virginia pomologist Tom Burford discovered a tree and identified the much-lauded-and-thought-extinct Harrison apple. So it’s rare, storied, and tart. It’s, like, the perfect Albemarle CiderWorks apple!

The Dabinett, on the other hand, is a classic English cider apple. It is bittersweet with low acid and soft tannins. One New Hampshire cidermaker was quoted at a workshop saying, “If you’re going to plant one bittersweet [apple], plant this one.”

With these two apples, Albemarle CiderWorks makes an uncharacteristically (for them) semi-sweet cider. The two apples strike up a flavor dialectic where each adds depth to the other. Plus, the aroma is amazing, beguilingly pear-like. As we said, it’s fun to see Albemarle CiderWorks have fun making their ciders. However, it’s even more fun to drink what they’ve had fun making.