hiyu "floréal" cider V

Floréal Cider IV, V

This project is a collaboration with a nearby certified biodynamic orchard, owned and farmed by the Jacobson family at the base of Mt. Hood. The property lies at 2000 feet, 11 miles from the summit of Mt Hood. It has been a farm since the turn of the century, and the first orchard in the Pacific Northwest to become biodynamic, in 1995.  Fun fact: Floréal was one of the spring months in the French Revolution Calendar, named after the Latin word for flower, and a fitting name for a blossoming coop.

Varieties: over 80 different cider varieties but also some heirloom dessert apples that were originally grown on the property (Ashmead Kernel, Wixon Crab, Hudson’s Golden Gem, Ribston and Cox’s Orange Pippin), pears and quince

Site: Biodynamic-certified, 50-acre orchard, irrigated with glacial water and the soils are loam composed of volcanic glass fragments.

Making of: the apples are aged for a month after picking in order to ripen and concentrate, then milled and macerated for a week, and pressed in a basket press traditionally lined with biodynamic straw (used as a kind of sieve, but it also adds spiciness to the final flavor). The juice is then spontaneously fermented and aged in old barrels, without being topped up. In the next vintage, the fresh fermenting juice from the new crop is added in order to initiate the secondary fermentation in bottles and turn the beverage into a slightly sparkling one. Unsulfured, unfiltered, undisgorged. 

Personality: the IV, the fourth release of this cider, is a 2018 cider refermented with 2019 fresh juice. As Nate says: “With each release, new trees begin producing and the selection of apples improves. This cider is the most concentrated to date. It has higher acidity and the texture of the bubbles is extraordinary. It has an almost Selosse-esque, nutty oxidative note that is quite unusual, but is fresh at the same time, so you get the perfect yin-yang balance.”

The V, as in the fifth version of the cider, is a 2019 cider refermented with 2020 fresh juice. Fully sparkling and cloudy. It is bone dry, very firm, pure, aromatic and bright.