Still, dry cider
$16 | 750 ml

The Story of Albee Hill 2019

About a million years ago, a vast sea of ice descended at an astonishing rate of 2-3' per day upon northeastern North America. As it traveled south, it encountered the higher elevations of of the northern Appalachian Mountains where it became obstructed and began to carve out the Finger Lakes. Some of the glacier continued to flow south through preglacial stream ways, carving them ever deeper and steeper. When the ice age ended and the glaciers receded, they left behind the rocky debris they had carried with them from the north in the bottoms of these carved valleys.

The little corner of this earth where our orchard sits is a glacially steepened valley—rocky hills overlooking the pristine Cayuta Creek Valley. The marks left by the glaciers are dominant features of the site: layers of exposed shale line cliff-like slopes rising from the gravely, cobble filled aquifer below. They serve as a constant reminder of the geological time scale that dwarfs us.

The idea behind this cider is the question: can you taste a place? Each year we harvest a field blend of apples grown on this rugged site, ferment them with their own native yeasts and bottle them simply—still and dry. In 2019, the powerful, linear structure of the Albee Hill cider reflects the layers upon layers of shale, through the cracks of which the trees are slowly trying to send their tough roots.

Autumn Stoscheck Cider Maker/ Orchardist