In a celebration of outstanding flavor as well as responsibility, Snowdrift Cider Co. of Wenatchee, Wash. has earned national recognition from Good Food Awards for their blended and barrel-aged cider, Cornice, a winner of their highly-vetted and scrutinously-judged award.
“We’re really happy with the news,” says owner and cider maker Tim Larsen. “After so many years of making cider ‘the hard way’, it’s encouraging to see people value good food from small farms.”
While Washington State’s cider industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, the “hard way” Tim alludes to is a road less traveled among producers. Produced entirely from apples grown either on the family orchards or within a few miles thereof, Cornice is a labor of love.
The cider apples are ripened to perfection on the tree and in the bin, developing aromatic flavors not normally experienced in apples destined for the normal produce market. When they’re just right, they’re hand-washed and run through a press that can only process 6-8 bins a day. And that’s all before fermentation even starts. For the varieties used in the blend, properly maturing the cider takes up to a year.
Even the process of coming up with Cornice was laborious. “We’ve had a fair amount of internal resistance in this process. With so much great character to work with in our cider apple varieties, we’re very careful with how we treat our blends,” says Tim. “The prospect of committing our cider to the unknown effects of barrel aging uncovered some underlying puristic tendencies. However with a few years of trials and refinements behind us, we’ve found a blend that strikes a beautiful balance.”
In the vein of keeping things local, Snowdrift picked up some barrels from Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane, Wash. Previously used for aging their locally-sourced whiskies, the barrels impart flavors of caramel and vanilla that blend with the vibrant tannin structure from a blend of bittersharp cider apples, and the soft round character of cider made from Cameo apples. In spite of the hesitance to release Cornice, it has quickly become one of Snowdrift’s top-selling ciders.
Snowdrift was one of only 10 cideries in the US whose ciders passed the 12 judges’ stringent scrutiny of growth and production practices, ingredient usage, and ultimately flavor, to receive the award “winner”. Snowdrift’s “Red Cider,” made from red-fleshed apples, was selected as a “finalist” in the previous round but was not granted “winner” status.
Nearly 2,000 entries from 48 states were submitted to the 13 categories judged this year. The full list of winners is available on the Good Food Awards site.