MIPAC
THE ANNAPOLIS CIDER COMPANY: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEAN AND GINA
FAMILY SERIES 2015-2016 Family Series
Founded in 2015 and soon to be opening at 388 Main Street in Wolfville, The Annapolis Cider Company will be producing ciders from 100% Annapolis Valley apples at its cidery. The cidery will be open year round and will offer tours and tastings. The company’s co-founders are Gina Haverstock and Sean Myles. How long have you been planning this new venture? Since we came together in the Valley six years ago, we began thinking about how we could get more involved in the local food and beverage movement. About a year and a half ago we started putting together a plan for cider. Once we were able to secure a space in downtown Wolfville, we never looked back. How did your backgrounds influence your decision to open this business? Gina is the winemaker at Gaspereau Vineyards and has been producing wines from local grapes since 2006. Sean is a Dalhousie University apple researcher who established an orchard with more than 1000 apple varieties at the Kentville Research and Development Centre. Born out of a passion for supporting local, the cidery unites Gina’s fermentation expertise with Sean’s interest in apple diversity. But we’re not leaving our careers behind to operate the business — we’re keeping our day jobs as winemaker and professor and have hired a great team to lead the charge at the cidery. When will you be opening? We aim to open sometime in April. The fermentation is currently bubbling away and we’re working on the yeast’s schedule! How long have the renovations to your new space on Main Street in Wolfville taken? We started on November 1 and finished up in early March. The cidery is designed by local architect, Brian McKibbin, and was completed by a crew of local tradespeople under the direction of Todd Davison of TABS Davison Construction. We’re very fortunate to have had such a great group of people transform the space on Main street into our cidery. What can visitors expect to notice first during their visit to the Annapolis Cider Company? Stainless steel and smiling faces. Customers can peer directly into the cidery right from the tasting bar, and get an intimate view of a working cellar. And our manager, Katie Barbour, is committed to providing a worldclass customer service experience that will keep the crowds smiling. How many cider varieties do you plan to offer? The cidery will start by serving two main ciders called “Crisp and Dry” at 7.7% alc. and “Juicy and Sweet” at 5.6% alc. Customers can also
2 | April 7 – April 21, 2016
Ages 5+
get a third cider called “Something Different”, whose style will vary batch to batch to keep things exciting. And as we evolve, we'll continue to produce specialty products - we've got a few things up our sleeves already.
Photo Credit: James Skinner
Will ciders be on tap or exclusively sold in bottles? Customers will be able to try our ciders at our tasting bar and buy re-usable, refillable bottles that we'll fill with fresh cider from the taps. Once we get our bottle filler up and going, we'll also have one-way bottles of our main products, the "Juicy and Sweet" and the "Crisp and Dry". People will also start to see our ciders popping up at restaurants and bars by mid-summer we hope.
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What size annual production are you aiming for? We aim to make 20,000 litres in our first year and the sky is the limit after that!
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What apples will you use? We use 100% Annapolis Valley apples. We select a combination of varieties that give us the balance between tannins, sweetness, and acidity that we are aiming for. Because varieties differ in how long they can be stored, the availability of varieties varies throughout the year and so our product will vary throughout the year too. For example, the flavour of our ciders will be different at harvest, when we can get the early apples that don't store well, than the flavour in May when we're using apples that have been in cold storage for the winter. Despite the variation, every batch is likely to contain Golden Russet, McIntosh, Cortland, and Jonagold. And every batch of our “Crisp and Dry” contains a local crab apple, called Hyslop Crab, that contributes great tannins and aromas. What was the process like in deciding on your apple cider varieties? Local apple growers have been keen to help us find the apples we need to make our ciders. We’re very fortunate to have access to diverse apple varieties in the Annapolis Valley that enable us to create unique combinations of flavours. We started about a year ago securing the apples we need and testing various combinations of apple varieties and yeasts. Together with our cidermaker, Melanie Eelman, we dialed in on the flavour profile we’re aiming for which we feel captures the taste of the Valley. Learn more at drinkannapolis.ca
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