I have to admit, I am surprised that we haven’t seen more craft cideries pop up in the province. One of my close friends is from Normandy, and every chance he can a funky bottle of French cider is opened at my house. I look forward to getting into one of those bottles. Many wineries added cider to their portfolios after the cold winters in 2013 and 2014 left them with damaged vineyards and shorter crops to work with. But, I don’t think any of the wineries really cracked the code in creating a product that would appeal to their wine customers. You can buy them in a 500ml can at the LCBO. But I never got the same feeling opening one of these cans that I did when I get into their wines.
Earlier in the pandemic I had a chance to speak with Ryan and Nicole Monkman about FieldBird. I’ve been following the FieldBird since the gorgeous branding caught my attention on Facebook. I was thrilled to speak with them – frankly – because everything about the brand has a polished grassroots feel to it. The eye catching labels are big and were designed by Nicole. When you get your hands on a bottle of FieldBird cider make sure you read the text on the side label. Every bottle has a small note that doesn’t tell you what to expect in the bottle – but definitely will tell you a little bit about the kind of people who make cider like this.
When the box of samples arrived I was surprised to see what was largely still cider. Just how would it go down to sip on an apple cider without the bubbles?
I talked to Ryan about how he decided to make his products. He enjoys drinking still ciders. Something I found curious – as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a still cider on the market. His process with making cider is that he treats the juice off an apple the way you’d treat juice off a grape. To Ryan, this is winemaking. And when you drink still cider he suggests you treat it like wine. So put it in the fridge and serve it in a white wine glass.
The first cider I enjoyed was the 2017 Buzzing Chatter – a cider made with a mix of apple varieties. And with the mindset of treating this bottle like a wine it definitely gives you a Riesling-esque experience. There’s a lot of acid in the glass – but it’s mated well with 16 g/l residual sugar. This is very good grown up apple juice. I also tasted 2018 Golden Russet, and 2017 and 2018 Northern Spy. All of these are just delicious bottles of cider. But I’ll admit as a reviewer I don’t think it would be fair to score these the way I score wine. But, I do highly recommend tasting them and maybe squirrelling a few away to see how they will age. Now getting to the ciders that have a bit of a fizz the 2018 Perry offered something tasty, and elegant. It’s one of those beverages where I would have a hard time not drinking it out of the bottle – but at the same time I would feel guilty not sharing it. 2018 Sing-Song traditional method cider is something that my friend Guillaume should really be thrilled to taste. It’s got the slight funky style that I’ve come to love. I am heading to the county at the end of the summer – and I plan on heading straight to FieldBird.
