What is #WineStudio?

PROTOCOL wine studio presents an online twitter-based educational program where we engage our brains and palates! It’s part instruction and tasting, with discussions on producers, varieties, tourism, terroir, regional culture, food matching and what all this means to us as imbibers.

Gnarly

Back in the day, my husband and I stumbled upon an apple orchard. but it wasn’t your ordinary apple orchard. These apples were grown for cider…the alcoholic kind, and they were ugly!  That’s how my love of hard apple cider blossomed. Check out the stunningly gnarly “apple portraits” on the Foggy Ridge Cider site.

Yes Virginia, your Hard Cider Timeline is Ripe with Juicy History

“We began planting in 1996,” says Diane Flynt, owner and cider-maker of Foggy Ridge Cider. “And we now grow more than thirty varieties of apple, many from heirloom stock. When you’re making cider, you need a palette of apple flavors to balance out the sugar, acidity, and tannins. Blending flavors is what makes good cider.”

“But we still have more to do. During the American Revolution, the average American drank thirty-five gallons of cider a year.” So my goal is to make that old statistic accurate again…and I’m happy to do that one gallon at a time.” (Garden & Gun)

Indeed. Nicholas Spencer, secretary of the Virginia House of Burgesses, speculated on the time: “All plantations flowing with syder, soe unripe drank by our licentious inhabitants, that they allow no tyme for its fermentation but in their braines.” 

Of course, we’re a lot more sophisticated now, not necessarily needing to drink but rather enjoying the drink.

Online Program Schedule
9:00pm – 10:00pm EDT (unless noted)

Week 1: October 7 – Foggy Ridge Cider

Malus Domestica – Introduction to Apples

We talk cider apples citing the cidery’s phenomenal apple portraits, which apples work best, why, and a primer on how cider is produced. We’ll also discuss past, present and the future of Virginia hard apple cider.

Online: Diane Flynt @FoggyRidgeCider

Week 2: October 14

9:00pm – 9:30pm Winchester Cider Works

We discuss what the English cider-making process brings to the Virginia cider scene and how an English cidermaker, a fourth-generation orchardist and a botanist / brewer produce beer-like and barrel-aged ciders.

Online: Stephen Schuurman @WinchesterCider

9:30pm – 10:00pm Corcoran Hard Cider

Then we have Lori Corcoran, winemaker for over ten years producing cider similar to wine, fermenting and aging in stainless steel temperature controlled tanks. Corcoran is the first in Loudoun County to produce hard cider, and the first combination winery, brewery and cider maker in Virginia.

Online: Lori Corcoran @corkysfarm

Week 3: October 21 – Old Hill Cider

At 100 years, Showalter’s Orchards is one of the oldest orchards in Virginia, still growing all their own cider apples and producing the only wild yeast fermented cider in Virginia. We’ll also get a taste of their unique dessert ice style cider produced from super acidic fruit.

Online:  Sarah Showalter @OldHillCider

Week 4: October 28 – Albemarle CiderWorks

How a hobby thrived into a viable and sustainable business. We discuss the concept of nursery first, then the cider works and propagating the next generation of orchardists.

Online: Anne Shelton @AlbCiderWorks

And gear up for Cider Week VA November 14 – 23!

What’s old is new again. Join the Virginia cider revolution!

Kingston Black

sponsored by the Virginia Wine Board