Metal House - 'Philomena's Royal' Dry Dessert Cider (500ml)

  $27.99

Quantity in Stock: 7
Producer Metal House
Country United States
Region New York
Type Amaro & Aperitif
Vintage 2020
Size 500ml

A wonderfully curious new afterdinner sipper achieved from blending apple cider fermented to dryness with distilled apple cider. You can think of it somewhat like cider eau de vie that avoids the harshness of drinking a spirit neat. Textrured and smooth apple essence in a glass. 

Metal House Description

e are a builder and a painter who moved to Esopus from the city in 2009, eight months pregnant and ready for something closer to the land.

The orchard is a homecoming of sorts for both us – (Matt grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where his dad is a winemaker, and so he spent his childhood in the vineyards and cellar. Kimberly has always loved the harvest, whether it be olives in Italy or summers working wheat harvest in her native Walla Walla, Wa.) It wasnʼt long before we started to experiment with cidermaking using the curious and flavorful fruit from the neglected apple trees on our property.

We relish the harvest as well as the hard work required to produce a superior cider that is a true reflection of the Hudson Valley and its story.

We heartily enjoy the spoils and hope you will too!

TREE-TO-LABEL

We start with apples sourced entirely from historic Hudson Valley orchards and our own reinvigorated family orchard in Esopus, NY. After having sweat the apples for a spell, we press on our handmade rack-and-cloth press. Initial fermentation takes place in glass and stainless steel, and then rests through the winter in our steel clad cider house – the metal house!

We blend in the spring, and start a new tirage using champagne yeast, nutrients and sugar to restart the fermentation process. We bottle immediately and then lay the bottles horizontally for a minimum of six months, allowing the second fermentation to proceed slowly, and imparting an optimal effervescence to each one. After riddling the lees into the neck of the bottle, the precipitate is disgorged and the bottle is topped off with a cider dosage. We then cap, clean and label bottles.

Sure, one can make cider in about four days. But good things take time. From the sustainably grown apples we pick, to the way in which we ferment, to the time we allow it to bottle condition, we work for it … and wait for it. Toil, love and time.

TERROIR

We are lucky to live and work in the town of Esopus in Ulster County. Once a locus for fruit and apple farms of great fame, Esopus is bound by the west bank of the Hudson River, the Rondout Creek, and the Wallkill River and includes the Shaupeneak Ridge and Black Creek to the south. The Hudson Valley already enjoys a temperate growing season and we additionally benefit from the riverʼs close proximity and its capacity to moderate temperatures. A mixture of silt loam and loamy sand soils represents the rolling and moderately hilly surface of our little slice of this graceful valley.

There is a word in italian that doesnʼt quite translate to english. Sano means healthy and sound, as in the food we eat, the environment we surround ourselves in, and the ideas we support. Complete. This is the orchard from which we want to harvest apples…An orchard free from unnecessary herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers allows organisms to work with the trees, improving the flavor and characteristics of the fruit. Beneficial flora have the opportunity to thrive. We see this in abandoned orchards, that despite years of neglect the trees have developed a symbiosis with nature.

We pick apples from a cross-section of these old orchards and endeavor to use the most sustainably grown fruit available to us.

Can't find what you're looking for? Reach out to us at (845) 340-9463 or hello@kingstonwine.com for special orders/requests!