Pommeau [2023]

The Story of the Two Year Pommeau
In 2018, we laid down in barrel, spirits distilled from our own bittersweet apples by Collin McConville, at Apple Country Spirits in Williamson, NY. Half of the spirits were aged at 160 proof and the other half were blended with cryoconcentrated juice extracted during our ice cider making process before aging. After two years, these two barrels were blended along with some cider lees from the 2019 vintage.

The painting on the label of this cider was made by Janet Byer Sherman. Once a dancer with Martha Graham, Janet paints kinetic landscapes that evoke layers of memory, meaning and emotion. In a sense, the pommeau does the same…the landscape it evokes is surely the orchard here in Van Etten, but also perhaps the orchards of Normandy and their bittersweet apples that inspire us. One of my favorite flavors in pommeau, is the apple on the orchard floor, ripe beyond recognition, a memory of a harvest now past, sinking into the damp autumn leaves.