Albemarle CiderWorks - Old Virginia Winesap (750 mL)
Albemarle CiderWorks - Old Virginia Winesap (750 mL)
Albemarle Ciderworks' Old Virginia Winesap is a dry, single varietal cider made 100% from Winesap apples. The Winesap apple is a classic cider variety from the mid-Atlantic region that survived the decline of American cider because of its great culinary and dessert characteristics.
Tasting Notes: The cider it produces has a nice sharp finish with notes of baked apple, apple peal, and black tea with lemon in a crisp, mineral forward cider. Medium body with a nice long finish.
Virginia's Albemarle Ciderworks is one of the premier American cider makers. The Shelton family founded Vintage Virginia Apples in 2000, developing an orchard with a focus on older apple varieties that had fallen into obscurity. They now grow more than 200 varieties, including many American Heirloom apple varieties that were popular for cider making during the Colonial era - when cider was the beverage of choice. The family launched their cidery in 2009, with a focus on reviving the popularity of cider apple varieties, especially those with a history rooted in their region of the U.S.
About WINESAP apples, from Albemarle: also known as American Wine Sop, Banana, Hendrick's Sweet, Holland's Red Winter, Pot Pie Apple, Potpie, Red Sweet Wine Sop, Royal Red of Kentucky, Texan Red, Winter Winesap and Refugee. There are dozens of strains, including the Virginia Winesap, a darker sport, found at the Garland Orchards in Troutville, Virginia, in 1922, and marketed by Stark Brothers. Winesap was first described as a cider fruit by Dr. James Mease in Philadelphia in 1804, and in 1817, William Coxe illustrated and described it in A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees. It was known during the colonial period in Virginia, and Coxe wrote of it as popular for cider making in New Jersey, but there is no documentation at this time of its place of origin. Small to medium in size and round to oblong in shape, the skin is a deep-red or maroon in color with the yellow background showing on the shaded side. Indistinct flushes and stripes of a darker red, and sometimes a netting of russet, overlay the lighter red. The yellow flesh is sweet, crisp, and aromatic, with a vinous flavor. The seeds are brown, short and ovate in shape. Small, folded and oval in shape, the leaves are a medium to round and dull. The new growth bark is a dark-red with few lenticels. A dependable bearer, it produces heavy crops annually and is suitable for cooking, dessert and cider making. The blossoms of the Winesap are pink instead of the white of most varieties. An exceptional keeper, it ripens in Virginia in October.
- Dry-to-Sweet Scale: Dry
- Tannins:
- Acidity:
- 🍎🍐 Varieties: Winesap
- Features: Single-Varietal Cider
- ABV: 8.1%
- Format: 750 mL Bottle
- Shipping available across U.S.
- In stock, ready to ship
- Inventory on the way
