Cider Brothers "William Tell" Hard Cider of Lodi

The Cider Brothers are Michael and Paul Scotto, 5th generation members of a Lodi wine family. They've recently branched out into hard cider production.

Cider was for a long time America's most popular alcoholic beverage, but lost favor with Prohibition and changing tastes after WWII. I was first exposed to it when it re-emerged as a curiosity in the 90s with brands like Woodchuck and a few British imports. Since then, the market has grown alongside the enthusiasm of the craft beer industry and there's more interest in traditional small production ciders made from fresh apples rather than concentrated juice. The Cider Brothers use a combination of five apples.

From the press release:

• Golden Russets enhance the bouquet and aromatics, and contribute complexity and fruit flavor
• Granny Smiths add tannic structure and tartness, adding to the mouthfeel
• Galas help deliver a clean, refreshing finish
• Fujis lend just the right amount of sweetness
• Red Delicious brings rich mouth feel and distinct appley, aromatic qualities

Right now the bottles are available in the 22 oz. format, a little smaller than a 750mL wine bottle. But hard cider is usually a low alcohol beverage, so this is perfect for splitting between two people at dinner. (UPDATE: 12 oz. bottles are also available.)

William Tell Hard Apple Cider
Lodi, California
$9/22 oz. 6% abv.

Bright and slightly yeasty nose, with a clean, crisp, tart mouth feel. The dominant flavor is akin to a Golden Delicious. Completely lacking the sour note found in many mass-produced ciders.

William Tell Pinot Grigio Hard Apple Cider
Lodi, California
$9/22 oz., 6.5% abv.

This one is made with 85% Hard Apple Cider, 15% Pinot Grigio. Very similar to the first one, but the wine is definitely present with a rounder, smoother mouthfeel. I was skeptical of this kind of blend at first but after tasting found that I preferred it over the pure apple version. This would be phenomenal to serve at a BBQ.

Note: These ciders were provided as samples for review.

Woodchuck Private Reserve Ginger

After recently getting back into hard cider, I found myself wanting to try more. I know that I'll exhaust the locally available options pretty quickly, but while driving home one night I was thinking about the subject and wondered, "If the wine shops carry big beer, do they carry big cider?"

The answer is a delicious yes. In the little corner devoted to Russian Imperial Ales and strong Belgians, I found a sixer of Woodchuck that was a bit stronger than the usual and whose details were far more interesting than the hard-to-read yellow on yellow label. I love a really good ginger ale and in recent years have used the rhizome a lot more in cooking, so I was excited for the inclusion in the cider. Would it be hot and spicy?

I let it chill in the fridge, got out my tall pilsner glass, and gave it a try...

Woodchuck Private Reserve Ginger
Middlebury, Vermont
6.9% abv., $10/6-pack

With low carbonation and a high alcohol content, this is approaching an apple wine. What's the difference? Hard cider is lower in alcohol and carbonated. Apple wine is still and higher in alcohol. (In fact, cheap, mass-produced cider can be made by importing apple wine from Canada and diluting it with fizzy water.) It has a glorious Golden Delicious aroma and flavor that is bright and full of sunshine. Crisp and dry with just a little bite from the ginger. Julia and I had some of the other bottles with a couple of hearty salads and it was a great accompaniment. Highly recommended and worth a little detour while you're at the liquor store.

Benito vs. Cider: Woodchuck & Crispin

While I was doing research for the Serious Eats article, Julia ordered a Woodchuck Amber Cider and I realized it had been a long time since I'd had any cider. How long? If only I had some sort of electronic log of every beverage I've consumed in the past eight years... Ah yes, I had some cider back in 2006 and pointed out that it had been a long time since I'd had any cider. Look for my next review in 2018!

The next time I was at the grocery store I figured I'd get one of those "Build a Six Pack" things and try all the ciders. In terms of loose bottles they only had Woodchuck Amber and Crispin Original. But at least I had a baseline cider and a new one for contrast, and the color of the Crispin was tantalizing. This was also an interesting battle because Woodchuck is owned by an LLC in its native Vermont, where the company helped reintroduce hard cider to America after decades of neglect and now controls half of the market in this particular beverage. Crispin, on the other hand, was founded in Minnesota by a South African cider enthusiast, became the third biggest cider producer, and is now owned by beer powerhouse MillerCoors. So the independent is the big market leader and the smaller English-style cidery is part of the global consolidation of the brewing industry...

Woodchuck Amber Hard Cider
Middlebury, Vermont
5% abv.

The classic that we all know, and found in bottle and draught form throughout the country. I've always wanted to know the varieties, but cideries tend to be pretty secretive about their apple blends. The Amber seems to dominate with reds and is rich and slightly sweet with a bit of thickness to it, like standard apple juice. Slightly sour aroma and the drink clings to your lips a bit. It was good to try it again after so long, but I'll always prefer their Granny Smith version.

Crispin Original Natural Hard Apple Cider
Minneapolis, Minnesota
5% abv.

This one is made with a blend of red and green apples, living a lighter, crisper profile that reminds me a lot of Sauvignon Blanc. It's not as sweet as the Woodchuck and has a brighter, more refreshing character. I started craving shellfish, and I think I'm going to serve this in the future with a big batch of moules normande. I'm also really excited to try some of their wide and fascinating other ciders made in a variety of styles.

In this instance I'm going to call Crispin the winner, but have to give Woodchuck credit for bringing cider back to the nation and maintaining a standard of quality and independence over the past twenty years. It's still hot outside, so chill some cider and work a few bottles into the old beer rotation.

Fennel & Tomato Soup

Yet another Les Halles recipe... As winter draws near, it's getting colder, and it's time for soup. I used canned tomatoes for this recipe, and while it was simmering away I was working in the garden, cutting down my tomato vines and preparing the former patch as a compost pile in order to enrich the soil for next year.

It's a pretty simple soup that begins with an odd mirepoix: a small onion, a small potato, and a big bulb of fennel. I've run into some problems buying fennel around here--not in finding it, but the people working checkout never know what it is. One local chain has it labeled as "anise", which is fine, but once after telling the checker to look for fennel or perhaps finocchio, she finally found a little tag on the bulb with a number, keyed it in, and said, "For future reference, it's called 'anise'". Except she pronounced it anus, which drew some strange looks from the other folks in line.

Beyond that, the rest of it is just chicken stock with a little dash of herbs. Let it simmer for an hour, and then blend before serving. Couldn't be simpler.

Here's the final product, with a little cheese toast (grated Sonoma Dry Jack) and a bottle of Hornsby's Crisp Apple Hard Cider. There's not much information out there about this cider--it's made by a Gallo company, and I'm pretty sure it's made with Golden Delicious apples (or something close), but it's a nice little hard cider. It avoids the vinegar aromas that you sometimes get with hard cider, and instead focuses on a bright and sunny flavor.

The soup was a big success, especially since the dominant flavor is fennel with tomato as a supporting flavor. Fennel's not something I eat all the time, but I crave it once in a while. I really wanted to leave out the potato from the recipe, but it turned out to serve two important functions: it provided texture as well as a creamy appearance even though no cream was used in the recipe.

Postscript: I often publish these articles a couple of days after I write them or fix the dish. I like to have some time to look over what I wrote, and also I appreciate the "leftover quotient" of certain dishes. As a bachelor with a roommate of limited palate, I often end up eating my own cooking for days afterwards. This soup holds up quite well on the second day, though I elected to freeze a liter of it for use later in the winter. I've still got a bowl's worth sitting in the fridge, and look forward to consuming it alongside a club sandwich or similar fare.

Combinations #1 - Benito Rises to the Challenge

Here's my entry for the First Combinations challenge: Baked Mackerel with Rhubarb Sauce. I couldn't find fresh mackerel anywhere near Memphis, so I decided to substitute rainbow trout fillets. I wanted to use young whole rainbow trout, but one of my regular supply lines dried up. And I had the damnedest time finding cider, so I'll start with that image. I drank a lot of hard cider (as we call it in the states) back in the late 90s, which is when it was really first introduced in this market. That coincided nicely with my turning 21. I was particularly fond of the Woodchuck Granny Smith Draft Cider. But I stopped drinking it at some point, and haven't touched the stuff since. Hey, there's been too much good beer and wine that's come my way recently. Anyway, I picked up a six pack of Hornsby's Cider, bottled by the Gallo wine conglomerate. I had a bottle this afternoon and loved it. Great apple flavor without being sweet or having that vinegar flavor that I grew to despise in hard cider way back when.

Here's how the meal turned out... Instead of boiled potatoes, I chose to make roasted eighths of new potatoes tossed in butter and fresh rosemary from the kitchen garden. Joining me for this dinner was my longtime friend and fellow blogger Paul. The sauce looked a little limp, but was quite flavorful, and I'm pretty sure this is the first time that I've ever eaten rhubarb. Yeah, I've gobbled up baby octopus and have eaten plenty of live ants, but somehow I never got around to rhubarb. The trout turned out OK in my opinion; I think it would have been better pan-fried or grilled, and I'm sure that this baking method was much more suited to the gutted mackerel than a mostly flat fillet. However, it was all eaten and enjoyed, and the dogs circled the table hungrily.

And now for the wine... This afternoon I wandered through the wine shop, looking for something appropriate. I could have gone with a tried and true favorite, but I really enjoy trying a new bottle. So I'm walking along, thinking I'd like an interesting white blend, and what do I find? A wine with my first name on it. (Yes, I'm a Benjamin, Benito is just a nickname.) Thus my wine of choice for this dinner was the 2002 Hill of Content "Benjamin's Blend" from the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Plus, Barbara's from around there, so I figured karma was on my side. The wine is a mix of 50% Chardonnay, 39% Sauvignon Blanc, and 11% Semillon, all unoaked. The wine is all about the peaches: on the nose and on the tongue and on the aftertaste. A nice wine to drink cold with a hearty bit of seafood, and a good bargain at $15. It matched well with the fish--the forward fruit and balanced acidity provided a counter to the sometimes fatty fish, and yet it complemented the sweet rhubarb sauce going along. The roasted potatoes mainly cleansed the palate between fruit explosions.