Washington’s Only Organic hard cider!
Like many young Washingtonians, we discovered hard cider during visits to Canada where the drinking age is 19! While in college we discovered a small wine shop that imported French ciders; they were a revelation. That was the 70’s and we toyed with the idea of making hard cider ever since. In 2001 we got serious and went to see how it was being done in the cider areas of England, France and Spain. The encouraging thing was that a lot of the production was on very small scale; the discouraging thing was that we needed to plant a true cider apple orchard to make a superior product.
Shortly after we returned, we heard that WSU was offering a class at Mt Vernon taught by English Cider master Peter Mitchell. We took advantage of that wonderful opportunity and soon placed an order for 900 French and English cider variety trees. We spent the next year clearing and preparing our land. In 2003 we planted our trees and in 2008 we had our first harvest.
Our orchard was certified organic in 2005 and in 2009 we were certified as organic processors. Wildfire Cider is the first organic cidery in Washington State.
This year is our second year of production and our orchard delivered 15 bins of incredible apples full of the tannins, acids and complex flavors that we encountered in Europe.
We love to show people around the orchard which is fully trellised and corned by mason bee houses. It is visited by an amazing variety of wildlife, ducks, raptors, eagles, heron, songbirds, deer, coyote, bobcat and quail, along with the less welcome rabbits and voles.
We are also happy to show our cidery and equipment. We have an Austrian chopper and press, several variable capacity tanks, oak barrels, pumps, sparging & bottling equipment: interesting things to people that like to explore the working end of cider production!
Why Go Organic?
To us, there is no option. The thought of using products that would potentially damage our selves, our watersheds, the wildlife and everything we care about most is unimaginable. We prefer to work inside the limitations that organics impose, knowing that we are doing our part to create the kind of future we want for our family and planet.
Making cider with organically grown fruit assures us that we are not taking part in the tremendous overuse of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides happening around the world. The additional attention we give our orchard keeps us in touch with all the amazing paths of nature each day.
Crafting a cider without the use of sulfites certainly has its challenges. Because we see cider as a drink meant to be enjoyed young, within a year or two of production, we feel this is possible. More and more often we find that the ciders (and wines) we sample have an underlying flavor of sulfite, especially in the finish. Because sulfite is such a readily available and accepted food additive it is terribly overused. Sulfite is a great tool for controlling the growth of unwanted yeasts and bacteria. Since we have chosen not to use it, we have to pay extreme attention to the cleanliness of the fruit, the speed of processing, temperature control and most critically the fact that “air is the mortal enemy of cider”. We really enjoy making and drinking cider without that conflicting flavor and the potential for allergic reaction.
AHHH CIDER!
We look forward to seeing the richness of flavor in our cider and the sustainable beauty and ecology in the orchard that maturity will bring over the coming years. We hope you enjoy our ciders!
We are open some weekends and by appointment for tours, tastings and special events.
