Contact:
Deirdre Birmingham
deirdre@theciderfarm.com
608.219.4279
Ten years in the making by Mineral Point’s Cider Farm
Mineral Point, Wisconsin —The Cider Farm, a Mineral Point-based specialty orchard, is releasing its first classic style, single cask, cider brandy in conjunction with Madison’s Yahara Bay Distillers. More than 10 years in the making, this brandy represents a combination of a unique horticultural project with artisanal (small batch) distillation.
The Cider Farm set out in 2003 to raise true cider apples organically in the Midwest. These apples are special cultivars grown explicitly for the production of brandy and true (hard) ciders. Unlike table fruit apples, apples grown on The Cider Farm are high in tannins and/or acids, which give the brandies and ciders made from them complex flavors.
“These apples are the wine grapes of apples. Just as you don’t make complex wine from table grapes, you don’t make complex brandy and ciders from table apples,” said Deirdre Birmingham, the CEO and chief orchardist of The Cider Farm. The Cider Farm is a USDA-certified organic orchard.
In addition to the specialty apple content, The Cider Farm adheres to the recipe used by French Calvados (apple brandy) producers. This recipe calls for 70 percent bitter apples, up to 10 percent pear content and the remainder being acidic apples.
“We are one of the only places in the Midwest that has sufficient bitter apples to follow the French cider brandy formula”, said John Biondi, the other principal of The Cider Farm.
In 2011, The Cider Farm partnered with Yahara Bay Distillers to distill and produce The Cider Farm’s brandy. Yahara specializes in small batch specialty distillation and has experience in producing apple brandy.
“When I learned of the ingredients that The Cider Farm was producing, I knew that I wanted to be involved in the project. We have a great deal of experience in producing apple brandy and I knew that with these ingredients we could do something truly special,” said Nick Quint, owner and founder of Yahara Bay Distillers.
The Cider Brandy is aged in charred American oak casks with plugs of wild apple wood from The Cider Farm. “Our first release is of a two-year aged brandy”, said Birmingham. “The single-barrel product has aged wonderfully and expresses the land, climate and fruit of The Cider Farm and southwestern Wisconsin.”
Production releases this year and next year will be limited, and will initially be available only through Yahara Bay Distillers. A brandy release party will be held Thursday, October 3 at Yahara Bay Distillers in Madison beginning at 5 p.m.
