The first time I passed through Port Townsend, Washington, it was dark and couldn't totally appreciate the surroundings. I could tell it was a place to return to. A quaint downtown and supper at a good restaurant, breathing the the salty air. Well, I did return to the area ready to take in Port Townsend in all it's daylight glory. A simple sign at a junction, changed my fate. A good cause I assure you, especially for people that take the "an apple a day...." saying to heart, even if it is in liquid form!
The first stop Chimacum, WA for Finnriver Farm and Cidery.
This place wasn't far from the junction with the sign and the journey opened up to farm-like, lovely views.
Finnriver grows blueberries and grains, as well as run an orchard and make cider.
Crates full of apples, that is a good sign!
Finnriver likes to experiment with added flavours. The flavours are actual real food ingredients, not artificial. That point makes all the difference. They have several ciders from medium sweet to dry and without added profiles.
I thought it was great that they developed a cider with students, it was pretty good, as well.
A popular ingredient to infuse with cider is hops. Those that like dry ciders should try this for an extra floral dimension.
It looks like someone was on a bender....Wasn't me.
The next stop was Alpenfire. If you are in the straight up cider camp, this is the place for you. They do offer some special ciders with added ingredients, again all real ingredients. They mention apple varieties like I have heard of in Britain.
Alpenfire Cidery
Apple trees are a good sign!
Barrels that add a whiskey, and/or oak note.
This is a real treat, the barrel aged cider are a real force right now. It is enjoyable to sip slowly over an evening, almost like you would with brandy, but, this is cider....Even better!
Be still my heart. This is the winner of the day, that is hard to do after the performance of Smoke.
Pirate's Plank Bone Dry - Scrumpy Style
Scrumpy
The term
scrumpy is thought to be an historic term meaning to steal or gather old
apples, from which they had fallen off the trees and began to shrivel. The history of scrumpy cider can be traced
back to when the Normans conquered England in 1066. Since being introduced to
cider, the English mastered the art of cider making and importantly the scrumpy
style. These are the real traditional English ciders, where the cider itself is
usually higher in alcohol, bottle conditioned, astringent, volatile and very
cloudy. Scrumpy is commonly labelled as the most pure and hands off style of
cider with no filtration, no preservatives and no water or sugar added. But
unfortunately, constant referral as being highly alcoholic and aggressive has
stigmatised the style. Alcohol contents
are known to reach dizzying heights of 15%, which is heading into apple wine
territory. Scrumpy is slowly becoming represented in Australia and New Zealand
with some commendable, cleaner examples being produced. Overseas scrumpy
imports, especially from England, are now also becoming readily available to the
more curious cider consumer.
The above description comes from All About Cider, Celebrating all things cider.
There may, or may not have been a cheese tasting that distracted us from cider. It was worth a stop!
Ok, this was purchased from a market, as we didn't actually make it to the cidery. There simply is not enough hours in a day. The cider was very nice indeed. The dry cider ticked all the boxes. It was mellow forward, with the subtle characters developing and drying on the tongue. I will be going to check them out in person.
Well, here is Port Townsend, in the dark. There will be a future blog when someone turns on the lights when I'm there.
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