In the middle of a raucous Oregon Brewers Festival, Northwest cidermakers set aside an evening for a convivial, fraternal gathering at Widmer Brothers Brewing for the Portland International Cider Cup.
Reserved for only Northwest makers, the fourth annual Portland International Cider Cup brought in 25 cideries from four states and Canada on June 19 to compete in the race for top NW ranks in cider. Last Thursday, the awards party was held to celebrate Northwest cider and the crowd that gathered to sample the seven best ciders in each category had the warm, intimate feel of a high school reunion. Cidermakers who had driven in from far-flung states like Montana were welcomed as old friends.
The seven ciders were served in sample glasses around the room, with bottles taped so that the tasting would be blind. Attendees were free to sample each of the ciders, as head judges decided which cider would ultimately take home the cup.
Before we learned what the Best of Show would be, Northwest Cider Association’s Emily Ritchie and PICC competition coordinator Carolyn Winkler introduced the bronze, silver and gold model winners in each category. For a newcomer to the cider world, it was a fantastic chance to learn about great ciders and cideries to check out in the future, such as Carlton Cyderworks’ Citizen and Twisted Hills’ Kingston’s Twist. Each winner was greeted with applause, whistles and cheers from the crowd.
We personally enjoyed the Modern Sweet selection, which ended up also being the judges’ pick for Best Of Show. Attendees discovered that the winning cider was Darby Pub Cider from Montana Ciderworks, based in beautiful Darby, Montana. Cidermaker Lee McAlpine accepted the cup.
The top winners in each category were: 2 Towns Ciderhouse’s Riverwood 2013 for Modern Dry Cider; Bull Run Cider’s Strawberry Fields for Fruit Cider; Cider Riot!’s 1763 for English Dry Cider; Elk Horn’s Bourbon Barrel Wild Cider for Wood/Oaked Cider; Finnriver’s Perry for Modern Perry; Montana Ciderworks’ Darby Pub for Modern Sweet; and Square Mile’s Spur and Vine for Hopped Cider.
After the cup was awarded, the competition also lightheartedly recognized a Best Dressed category, which went to Lisa McAuliffe, one of the stewards for this year’s competition, dressed in a sparkling red-and-gold sari. Winkler asked the winner to bring back the cup for next year’s competition — an implicit promise that the competition will continue to be an inspiration and a goal for many cidermakers for years to come.
