Twelve miles off the Fauntleroy-Vashon Island ferry, through a meandering highway of draping woods, modest farms and spotted views of the Puget Sound, is the distinctive and unorthodox island architecture of Jim Gerlach and Cheryl Lubbert’s home in the heart of Washington’s Vashon Island. The photogenic and modern, Japanese-inspired estate is set among a lawn manicured with precision, an eternally blooming garden and a contemporary patio prime for hosting, and is further defined by the orchard of nashi, or Asian pear, surrounding it.
The couple, who relocated from Chicago to take over this 27-acre run-down pear orchard, models their nano, handcrafted perry of Nashi Orchards after those they loved from France, England and Spain. The rigor and meticulous upkeep to the property doesn’t shy off when it comes to the orchard and the cidery’s production—after removing more than 40 trees from the property when recovering it, Gerlach and Lubbert left one apple tree and have since planted more, making Asian pear a priority and fixation.
For their first cider release outside of perry, Nashi sourced fruit from Parkdale, Oregon’s prestigious cider-minded Kiyokawa Orchards, specifically for the red-fleshed Mountain Rose variety. A dessert apple that exhibits some characteristics of a bittersweet cider apple (low acid, high tannin), the Mountain Rose Cider from Nashi shows aromas of red berries, golden apple, peeled apple skin and earth. Dry and crisp with plenty of red fruit and tart apple, this cider reveals textural complexities of easy tannin and soft-shaping acid as it leaves the tastebuds. With only one barrel made, this truly small-batch cider can only be found at Nashi Orchards, open Saturdays year-round.
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