Hard Cider Wine Information
Fall in New England comes on without pretense. Suddenly, after a summer of warm evenings and green trees, a cool wind blows and the landscape becomes a painter's vision of warm color. People flock from all over the US to see the trees, covered bridges, ocean waves and other features that make New England unique. One of the biggest draws are the small farms, with their pumpkins, squash, homemade apple pie, and ciders and fruit wines.
Massachusetts is well known for cider - West County Winery in the Berkshires has quite a collection of ciders available. They collect the apples from various orchards in the Berkshires, and create some tasty wines and ciders, as well as other products.
Also in Massachusetts is Goodale Orchards, in Ipswich Mass. Since 1920 this farm has been producing fine fruits and vegetables for people from hundreds of miles away. In addition to this produce, they put forth a startling variety of wines. Their fall supply includes:
- New England Cider
- Perry Cider
- Rhubarb Wine
- Peach Wine
- Pear Wine
- Strawberry Wine
- Cherry Wine
- Raspberry Wine
- Jostaberry Wine (black current & gooseberry)
While the fruit wines are very tasty and worthy of mention, it is the cider that becomes popular in the fall season. Cider is a relative of wine, with almost as ancient a history. Cider was common in England back before Christ, where apple trees were worshipped as sacred.
Cider always had alcohol in it. Especially in New England, cider was an immensely popular drink with the pilgrims and was drunk at meals by everyone, including children. Even clergymen, while denouncing 'harder spirits', would drink cider as a matter of course.
In those days cider was not sweet, because there was no refrigeration. Now that modern technology makes it easy to keep liquids cool, sweet cider is a very popular beverage. Modern langugae has also evolved so that 'cider' often means non-alcoholic, while 'hard cider' means the stuff with alcohol.
Remember when buying cider that There is a risk of E. Coli when purchasing it unpasteurized, so be cautious where you choose to purchase it.
Wine Types Main Listing
All content on the WineIntro website is personally written by author and wine enthusiast Lisa Shea. WineIntro explores the delicious variety and beautiful history which makes up our world of wine! Lisa loves supporting local wineries and encouraging people to drink whatever they like. We all have different taste buds, and that makes our world wonderful. Always drink responsibly.