Monday Cider Flight And A Movie: The Art of Racing In the Rain
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein, is about a dog named Enzo, with a philosopher’s soul. As he nears the end of his life, he tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three-year custody battle between daughter Zoe’s maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver. Sure, the book’s a tad sappy, but it is also a legitimately enjoyable read. Expect the film to deliver a similar gut punch when it screens at neighboring Blue Mouse Theatre at 7 p.m. Peaks and Pints suggests stopping by our craft beer and cider bar before or after the film. Monday Cider Flight And A Movie: The Art of Racing In the Rain features Viuda de Angelon Apple Blossom Buzz and Nashi Orchards Black Swan apple cider aged in Woodinville Whiskey barrels.
Viuda de Angelon Apple Blossom Buzz
6% ABV
It all starts in the orchard, and there in the orchard each spring’s production begins with the bees. Viuda de Angelon gets the apples and the bees get the honey. Fran Ordonex steals a bit of honey from his hives to give Apple Blossom Buzz a scent of spring blossoms and just a hint of sweetness, adding just enough honey to the sidra for the aroma.
Double Mountain Dry Cider
6.7% ABV
Double Mountain had long toyed with releasing their own hard cider, occasionally featuring housemade cider on at the taproom made from owner Matt Swihart’s own apples. The brewery finally releases its own Dry Cider in December 2017, blending freshly harvested heirloom apples from Double Mountain Orchards and Hood River Newtowns, Braeburns, and Hanners for old world complexity. Double Mountain gave it plenty of time to dry out and develop the aromas of juicy pear, lychee, green fruit, and chamomile. It finishes tart, crisp, dry and quenching.
Chatter Creek Heritage Blend
9.5% ABV
Gordon Rawson began making wine in the early 1980s as a home winemaker. Some of his first wine came from fresh apple juice purchased from the local grocery. Fun, but he desired to be a serious winemaker. After working for Columbia Winery as cellarmaster for nearly a decade, Gordon Rawson opened Chatter Creek Winery in 1996 to produce top-quality sparkling wines in Woodinville, Washington. In 1998, he broadened the focus of Chatter Creek to include still wines. Early in 2000, he departed Columbia Winery to focus solely on Chatter Creek. After a bad day making wine, he bought some apples to clear his mind. Next thing he knew, he added ciders to his label. Heritage Blend honors the orchardist by applying decades of winemaking experience to craft a cider using a blend of heirloom apples to achieve a delicate balance of bright fruit, full body, and a lasting finish in a wine-style cider. This cider is semi-sweet to balance the acidity and bring out the fruit in a very approachable fine cider.
Nashi Orchards Black Swan
10% ABV
In 2005, Jim Gerlach and Cheryl Lubbert moved into a Japanese Katsura villa-style house on Vashon Island, which included a 27-acre orchard of weakened Asian and European pears. The couple decided to nurture them back to health. In 2011, they opened for business, calling their cider company Nashi Orchards after the Asian pear, nashi. Nashi also produces apple cider, including their annual Black Swan using 100 percent foraged apples then aging them in Woodinville Whiskey barrels for added vanilla notes.
Finnriver Dry Hopped Cider
6.5% ABV
When one of Washington’s earliest cidermakers, Drew Zimmerman, retired, Finnriver owners Keith and Crystie Kisler added 1,000 of his trees from Mount Vernon to their Chimacum farm, to add “Cidery” to their Finnriver Farm name. Organic Washington dessert apples — Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Braeburn and Gala — are the base for Finnriver Dry Hopped Cider with Cascade hops adding grapefruit and pine notes. Finnriver ferments the juice to dry, then steeps with organic whole-leaf Cascade hops for up to two weeks, for additional depth and flavor, and to appease the hop-lovers on the crew
