Cider-making is not a business for the ego-driven. “Brewing is all about the brewer and the brewery. Cider is agricultural.” In the Old World, cider is made with only native yeast. In Normandy, that’s the law. “It hadn’t occurred to me that they did it like that,” says the one-time beer-brewer, “but of course they did, because some of these guys in Normandy have been making cider for thirteen generations . . . They just keep doing it that way, and it works.”

Then there’s trust in the apples. “The process is so very minimal. They press the fruit. They let the cider ferment on its own: no temperature control, no yeast.” When it’s finished fermenting, Hall says, “then they decide what to do with it.”

It becomes about tasting and blending. “This one’s really good, but it’s lacking a little acid, but this barrel has a lot of acid, just not a lot of aroma.” A splash here and a splash there – but you’d better know what you’re doing. Blend the right this and just the right that, and add a dash of the other thing . . . Year by year, it’s an improvisational art. Do it right, and “you get a really complex cider that you couldn’t do if you set out to do it with one tank.”

Photo via Virtue Cider

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