Ah, farmhouse cider. Always so damn good, and yet somehow, we never seem to drink enough of it. Here’s a chance to do just that, care of Edith and Croco down in Tasmania, who source organic raw materials and carry out production the old-fashioned way, ground-harvesting by hand over several months, then curing the fruit and pressing through oat straw for a slow, long ferment and 18 months of ageing.
The 2023 Cider of the Arve serves up everything you’d hope for from a drink like this – invigoratingly dry and steered by genuine, pleasantly bitter apple flavour, with a lick of spice and the gentle tug of tannin. They’ve only made 900 bottles of this bad boi, so get it while you can.
Their second offering is something a bit more off-piste, the 2023 Sparkling Apple Wine #3 – a cider with grape skins using both heritage and cider apples along with grapes grown by Rory Duggan, the brains and brawn behind the dynamite R.D’Meure wines. Two ferments at work here: one with chardonnay, pinot gris and those heritage apples; the other with cabernet franc and the cider varieties. The outcome? Ferment-forward, almost endlessly complex and a joy to drink slowly and steadily. Do it!