We've been making the best cider in Texas since 2014, out of our tiny cellar in Manchaca, 15 minutes south of downtown Austin. Enjoy!
02/21/2025
Here's a one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-replicated kind of cider for your sipping pleasure!
Holdfast is a fortified cider borrowing from French pommeaux and Spanish sherry styles, to make something altogether new.
Pommeauxs are traditionally fortified ciders made with full residual sugar (in other words, they are sweet, because they are essentially straight apple juice fortified without fermentation and only the addition of brandy). Here, we were thinking we wanted to try making a pommeau (which is, at its most basic definition, a fortified cider) but in a dry sherry style. There are A LOT of ways to make sherry, but one way is to let the wine go a little wild for a bit and develop a flor. The flor is like a ye**ty film that protects the wine while it keeps developing in flavor and complexity. So here, we fermented small lots of Auguste Cerise back in 2020 and 2021 to about 10% ABV and let it hang out for a good bit. Once it had developed a nice amount of funk, we fortified it with fruit brandy and aged it in sherry and cognac casks. A lot of uncertainty while making this one - would it tip over, or would it come out okay? We decided to "holdfast" (not to be too on the nose), wait it out a bit - and to a worthy end! The end result is a delightful aperitif, with notes of dried fruit, spice and almond. Sip it slow (the character changes in the glass) - during a long catchup with old friends, snacking on some spicy olives, salty speck and I'm thinking a hearty bread or cracker and some aged goat cheese. Well and now you've had your dinner.
