CIDER TUESDAY: Alpenfire Pirate Plank’s Bone Dry Cider
As one of several Port Townsend, Wash. and peninsula cideries, Alpenfire (the cidery formerly known as Wildfire) sticks out with its certification as the state’s only organic hard cider producer. The estate orchard was planted in 2003 with French and English cider varieties, certified organic in 2005 and off to its first harvest in 2008 to produce a specific set of ciders from – barrel-aged, bottle conditioned, unpasteurized, unfiltered and organic, to be exact. And the Pirate’s Plank Cider takes it up another level to “bone dry” classification and promises to “rob you of your misconceptions” about cider. Bold in apple aromas and flavors but steering clear of the fruit’s sweetness, the Pirate’s Plank allows the tannin and barrel-aging to come through resulting in a unique and memorable cider.