Cider as you know it is being taken back to the future with a traditional ferment released in wine bottles from Glenbernie Orchard.
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The producers of Darkes Cider have spent years creating their first Heritage Cider, aged in oak barrels and ready to be served in a wine glass over dinner.
Jo-Anne Fahey said Australian craft ciders generally used sweet apples, not the tart varieties known in Europe or the UK, while many people incorrectly assumed cider was like beer.
"There's not a lot of complex flavours in a normal dessert apple that we all grow in Australia," she said.
"In England and France, for example, they have these old style heritage varieties with different flavours in them. You get tannins from the skin and other flavour in the flesh, it's a little like differences in grapes."
The Heritage has a cloudy colour with sediment in the bottle and embodies a dry rounded finish, with advice to "rouse" the bottle before drinking - that is, gently roll the bottle to stir it all up before opening.
"It's drunk differently, served differently," Ms Fahey said. "It's more a drink you would share with other people, sit around and drink with dinner - like a fine wine or champagne."
The new release is just the beginning for their new angle, the farmer said, with about 40 different varieties of apples planted at Glenbernie in the last five years.
Ms Fahey has been working with northern Illawarra winemakers Benson and the Mooch to create their second heritage-style release slated for coming weeks, which will be a limited edition rose cider.
"We're predicting consumers are going to be looking for something other than super sweet, they want other tastes coming from the apple not from artificially added flavourings," she said.
The Darkes Heritage retails at $25 a bottle and is only available direct from the orchard.
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