Patois Bent Mountain Sparkling Cider 750ml

Witt Orchard, Roanoke County | Traditional Method Sparkling Cider, 750 mL | 55 Cases Produced | 8.3% ABV

Fruit/Site:

• 100% Albemarle Pippin apples, trees aged 40 and 80 years. A non-commercial orchard, fruit received very light spring sprays and nothing else.

• Sandy loam of mica and gneiss, 2900’ elevation. Bent Mountain has produced apples of renown since the mid 19th century.

Season:

• The flash drought in September and October of 2019 stressed the trees into early ripening and fruit drop, so I harvested everything myself off of the orchard floor. The fruit that survived a heavy culling was lush and juicy with surprising phenolic depth for a yellow-skinned apple.

• All fruit from this orchard was lost to frost in 2020.

Fermentation/Development:

• The crushed apples macerated on skins for three days with the cap kept wet by hand. Fruit was then pressed into a used French oak puncheon, where fermentation took 3.5 months to dryness with frequent stirring to re-suspend the yeasts.

• The cider was in barrel on gross lees for 6 months total, then racked and re-fermented in bottle with its own yeasts and organic sugar. Aged sur latte 12 months, and then riddled and disgorged by hand in late April 2021. No SO2 additions were made.

Tasting:

• Lily, crushed strawberry, sage

All fruit ferments without modification with ambient yeasts. The ciders are unfined and unfiltered, with SO2 added only when necessary. Any carbonation is a byproduct of captured fermentation.