[ALUmnus]

CiderJim, this one's for you.

http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/n ... ar-681655/

Once upon a time, apple cider was America's beverage of choice.

Of course, there weren't a lot of choices in Colonial America.

The water was iffy, and growing grapes was tricky.

"If you take the consumption of Pepsi-Cola and CocaCola today, you could equate that with . . . the consumption per capita for cider at that time," said Tom Burford, nurseryman, orchard designer and apple historian from Lynchburg. "It was the drink."

Much to Burford's delight -- and partly due to his efforts -- cider and the largely forgotten varieties of apples used to make it are enjoying a comeback. The evidence is on display at Albemarle CiderWorks, the newest of Virginia's two cideries that sold out its first year's batch and has increased production in its second year.

Albemarle CiderWorks is a family-run operation on U.S. 29 south of Charlottesville that began as a hobby and grew into a retirement project for Charlotte Shelton and her brothers, Chuck and Bill. Now, Charlotte said with a laugh, the family's orchard business, Vintage Virginia Apples, and the new cidery are "galloping ahead."

Charlotte taught history at Virginia Tech before becoming a stockbroker; Chuck is a retired environmental scientist; and Bill, who lives in the Richmond area, is director of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

Their parents, Bud and Mary Shelton, both in their 90s now, retired in the 1980s to this 78-acre patch of paradise in the foothills. Bud was a farmer in Amherst County before moving to Charlottesville to work for the Virginia Department of Forestry. Before all of that, he served as a pilot in World War II and was shot down over Germany, where he was held for six months as a prisoner of war.

He planted a small farm orchard, and Charlotte, the oldest of the Shelton children, added to it in the mid-1990s after being enthralled by the flavors of heirloom varieties she sampled at an apple-tasting at Monticello, where Thomas Jefferson grew apples and maintained a cider room. The Sheltons kept expanding their orchard and now grow about 250 varieties.

Along the way, they purchased trees from Burford, who is something of an apple detective, searching out and propagating lost and rare varieties. He is credited with rediscovering the Harrison, a superior cider apple that is among the varieties grown by the Sheltons.

The family started a nursery business in 2000 and, over the years, has sold apples and other fruit in season, as well as fresh cider. The Sheltons built a cidery -- equipped with a grinder, modern apple press and huge stainless-steel tanks -- along with a tasting room, and launched their hard (fermented) cider business in 2009, tapping into a market that has embraced the state's burgeoning wine industry. You can sample not only the cider but also the apples themselves. On a recent day, a collection of Albemarle Pippins, Gold Rush and other rare varieties were left out with paring knives on a wooden table.

"We're doing our best to restore apples to their rightful place in American culture," said Chuck Shelton.

It's a tasty heritage.

"The history of America can be told by the apple," Burford said.

The fall of cider and ultimately the diversity of the fruit -- the drink was a primary reason for the proliferation of different kinds of apples in America -- began in the 1800s as corn and grains for liquor and beer were more widely grown, temperance movements began to take hold, and Americans began moving from farms to cities. Prohibition delivered the death blow to cider. Wine, beer and liquor rebounded, but cider didn't come back, in part because the orchards that produced cider apples were gone.

Many of the apples weren't coming back, either. The growth of supermarket chains and the mass market that demanded apples uniform in taste and appearance led to the dominance of a handful of varieties such as Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. The thousands of known varieties had been reduced to maybe a dozen.

One that got lost along the way was the Pippin, a sweetly tart apple said to be loved by Benjamin Franklin and Queen Victoria, but one that, in appearance, "is kind of all over the place," said Chuck Shelton. "Some are small and round. Some are oblong. People say it's ugly. What people call ugly are some of the best-tasting apples ever created."

One of the Sheltons' hard ciders is made with Albemarle Pippins.

Cider requires apples that have a balance of acidity and sweetness. Hard cider is fermented apple juice, but like wine depends on the quality of the grapes, so too does cider.

"You can't make cider worth squat out of Fujis and Red Delicious," said Charlotte Shelton.

Apples with complex flavors make the best cider, said Diane Flynt, cidermaker at the state's other cidery, Foggy Ridge Cider near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd County. She said it's important to consider that when tasting hard cider for the first time. It won't be sweet like so-called industrial, mass-produced ciders, some of which are made from concentrate, not fresh apples. It also has a lower alcohol content than wine.

"Approach an artisan cider with a sense of openness and fun," said Flynt, a former banker who serves on the Virginia Wine Board as cideries are licensed as farm wineries. "Good cider is to be enjoyed like a good wine. It pairs well with food."

Said Annette Ringwood Boyd, director of the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office, "Cider's an exciting part of the Virginia wine family, and it's a growing part."

As many as five additional cideries are said to be in the planning stages across the state.

[Sly Fox]

Another orchard to check out on future return trips to Virginia. Thanks for sharing.

I remain a big fan of Gross Orchard near Bedford. If Peaks of Otter orchard could get their act together and have cider when I visit, they'd be back on my list as well.

[Hold My Own]

Cider Works FTW

[Cider Jim]

Great find, ALUmnus. That article is making my mouth water! This time of year, I love my hot cider on chilly mornings and cool evenings. And I'd love to visit some of those cider houses or "cideries".