Tideview Cider Wins Gold at International Cider Competition
Tideview Cider recently won four medals at the Great Lakes Cider and Perry Competition held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The big winner was Tideview Heritage Dry Cider 2007 – this classic dry cider was honoured with both a gold medal for Best North American Style Cider and an honourable mention for Best of Show. That’s an incredible honour according to Tideview’s cider-maker, John Brett: “We were one of two ciders selected for a Best of Show honours, out of a field of 130 entrants in that category.”
Other Tideview awards include a silver medal for Heritage SemiDry 2008, and a bronze medal for the Raspberry Cider 2008.
The Great Lakes Cider and Perry Competition is open to all apple and pear fermentation beverages. Brett emphasizes that “Cider” and “Perry” are alcoholic beverages made by fermenting apple or pear juice. There are 19 categories and three divisions, two commercial and one noncommercial. Entries came from 17 US states and three Canadian provinces, as well as producers in the English counties of Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Dorset and Suffolk.
“Our goal is to produce fine ciders and hopefully, in the process, revive the strong cider-making tradition that existed in Nova Scotia from the 17th through the 19th century,” says Brett. “Most people wouldn’t know that the Acadian settlers planted apple orchards in the 17th century so they could make hard ciders – which makes our cider tradition one of the oldest on the continent.”
“In other parts of the world where cider is popular there isn’t any confusion,” Brett explains. “Cider is an alcoholic beverage, like wine. But here in North America, we often use “cider” to refer to sweet, unfermented apple juice…sometimes when we sample our ciders at special events or the farm market it takes people by surprise.”
Tideview Cider is now in its sixth year of commercial operation. All of the special cider apples and other fruit is grown at Noggins Corner Farm or by neighbouring farms. The farm is located on the shores of the Minas Basin at the head of the Bay of Fundy, between Wolfville and New Minas.
“There’s been a big revival of interest in ciders over the past ten years,” Brett says. “With lots of small cideries like us springing up around the continent…we hope it’s the start of something big. It’s such a great beverage. Not as alcoholic as wine and not as starchy as beer. It can have some sweetness or be very dry. And it pairs beautifully with seafood and poultry and pork, so it’s a perfect accompaniment for the local ingredients we use here in the Maritimes.”
Tideview Cider is available at the NSLC provincially as well as private wine stores in metro Halifax. Additional details are available at Tideview Cider’s new website: www.tideviewcider.com.