20 ‘MORRIS’

Amherst County

Traditional Method Cider

47 Cases Produced

pH: 3.68 | ABV: 9.49% | TA: 7.12 g/L | TSO2: 0 ppm

All fruit ferments without modification with ambient yeasts. Ciders are unfined and unfiltered.

Artwork:

  • Cyanotype exposures of Gold Rush skins

Fruit/Site:

  • 100% Gold Rush apples from Morris Orchard in Monroe, VA. Clays of granitic schist, 950’ elevation.

  • Morris Orchard is a Virginia Century Farm, growing mixed fruits and vegetables and raising cattle. Wil Barnes, grower.

Season:

  • 2020 taught us why most of the old commercial orchard sites east of the Blue Ridge are planted below 1000’ elevation: late spring frosts claimed almost all fruit in the mountains but spared those further down the slopes.

Fermentation/Development:

  • Sorted apples were crushed to macerate for three days, with the cap kept wet by hand. After pressing, fermentation finished in a 350 L neutral French oak barrel and glass demijohns. Aged undisturbed for six months.

  • Bottled traditional method with organic sugar and its own yeast culture in early May 2021.

  • Bottles aged on lees for 12 months before being riddled and disgorged by hand in early May 2022.

Tasting:

  • Grapefruit, lychee, coriander seed, salt