7 minute read
From the orchard to the glass
Exploring Prince Edward Island’s cider scene
BY SAM WANDIO
Repeat visitors to the gentle island won’t be surprised by its vibrant craft beer scene, but cider is its newest offering, and adventurous tasters can take in all four of the island’s cideries in one day. From the rolling hills of Bonshaw to the picturesque forests and farmland of Caledonia, to the pleasant rural sweep of Warren Grove, to historic Charlottetown, a cider outing will show you some of the best landscapes Prince Edward Island has to offer.
A trip to a cidery offers a winery-style outing. For the orchard experience, three of the Island’s four cideries grow many (or all) of their apples on site. If you wish you can tour the orchards, and then head to one of the tasting rooms to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Close to Bonshaw and Strathgartney provincial parks and their hiking trails, you’ll find Riverdale Orchard, the perfect place to sit, relax, and enjoy a glass of cider (maybe to reward yourself for tackling The Goat Trail, a particularly steep section of Strathgartney).
Owners Anne and Alex Jamieson came from Scotland to Prince Edward Island in 2014 and like many others before them, they fell in love with it. They’ve been supplying the Island with U.K.-style ciders ever since. They use no additives in their ciders, preferring to let the apples and their natural fermentation process speak for itself.
The cider scene is growing across Canada. “I think it’s to do with educating potential customers,” Anne says. “Because it’s in a bottle … people think ‘Oh, it’s just like beer.’ It’s not. It’s a completely different method. When people come into the taproom and we’re explaining about the cider, one of the questions (we ask) is, if you’re a wine drinker, what’s your go-to wine? If you enjoy a dry, crisp wine, our cider is for you.”
Try Anne and Alex’s original 2 Scots 3 Apples cider (the three apples being Cortland, Novamac, and Northern Spy), or one of their other varieties, including a mulled cider that was so popular with guests that the couple started offering it in summer. If you’re peckish, grab a fresh home-style meal and relax on the patio and overlooking the hills and fields of Bonshaw.
Further to the east in Caledonia sits the 148-hectare Double Hill Cidery, named after the V-shaped hill, now the site of the orchard that supplies its apples. Founder Sebastian Manago aims to produce European-style ciders, constantly experimenting with different types of apples. The orchard boasts 33 varieties, six of them discovered as unnamed seedlings in the “wilds” of Prince Edward Island. The orchard grafts different varieties of apple trees to produce unique varieties of apples, and Sebastian says there’s something special about producing cider with an apple variety you can’t find anywhere else in the world.
Sample the cider apples on a walk through the orchard, but be warned that these aren’t the apples you’re used to. The best cider apples can often be far too bitter or tart to be palatable to the bite. Enjoy a flight of cider from the beautiful outdoor seating area overlooking the farm, or from the tented seating area with its plush couches. Manago says he wants to offer guests a full farm experience, and he says that the first batch of wine from their vineyard will be available soon.
Deep Roots Distillery, a picturesque farmyard orchard run by the Beamish family, is only a 15-minute drive from the Charlottetown city center. Mike Beamish, a retired Holland College professor, decided to repurpose his family’s organic U-pick orchard in 2014. He says that the push to go from a U-pick to producing alcohol was the changing regulations around the soft cider they sold. If an apple hit the ground, they could no longer use it in juice to be sold to the public, but could use it to ferment and distill the juice. So, Deep Roots began producing apple brandy.
Today, Deep Roots Distillery offers beverages from vodka to absinthe, moonshine to limoncello, and of course, a dry cider. True to its roots as a family business, the distillery employs three of Mike and Carol’s five children in production and business roles. Take a stroll through the orchard and read the history of apple production on the Island, the ins and outs of crafting a great cider, and the history of the Beamish orchard itself. When you’ve finished your tasting, why not take a walk or a bike ride down the nearby Loyalist Road section of the Confederation Trail? To the east of the trail intersection, you’ll pass over the North River, and to the west you’ll find beautiful, wooded seclusion, even in the height of summer.
For a tasting in town, Red Island Cider is just off the popular Confederation Trail. Started by a former professional photographer and a former professional cyclist and physiotherapist, Red Island uses juice from orchards in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, focusing on producing dry ciders.
Red Island has a cozy, intimate taproom up to 15 people can rent, and a patio section overlooking the trail. Enjoy one of their flagship ciders, or try one of the experimental Ghost Ship series, a line of one-off batches never to be sold again. With cider using haskap berries, honey, strawberries, and more, Red Island always strives to switch it up. “We usually try to keep it interesting, because we don’t want to just make the same thing all the time,” partner Robert VanWaarden says.
The more you know
Cider is technically a wine, since it’s produced with fermented fruit, but it’s much lighter in alcohol content, usually ranging between 3 per cent and 6 per cent (wines usually hover around 13 to 15 per cent). In Europe, cider refers to the alcoholic beverage, but here in Canada, it” can also refer to the juice from crushed apples. “Hard cider” is the term you use when you want to make sure no one gives the juice to the adults and the alcohol to the kids.
The science of cider
Some of the apple varieties Double Hill uses for its ciders were discovered during a joint project run by Double Hill and the University of Prince Edward Island’s biology department in 2021. On his hunt to find the perfect cider apple, the then fourth-year student Brandon Vriends went far afield and sampled dozens of apple varieties per day, before bringing the best fruits back to the lab, where they were analyzed to find out their chemical makeup. Finally, the winning varieties were added to Double Hill’s repertoire of cider apples.
This little piggy had some cider
The Deep Roots Little Pig cidery got its name from an incident with a breeding pair of pigs the Beamish family bought to clean up leftover apples. After her first litter, the sow got upset and the Beamishes were worried she might trample her piglets. The breeder suggested giving the sow hard apple cider to calm her down.
