Photo courtesy Blue Bee Cider
October is Virginia Wine Month, followed by a 10-day celebration of apple-based boozy beverages during Cider Week Virginia, Nov. 15-24. In serendipitous fashion, Early Mountain Vineyards, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Madison, and 7-year-old Blue Bee Cider have joined forces to create a cider-wine hybrid, Petit Manchurian.
The collaboration is an agricultural showcase of the bounty and diversity of Virginia grapes and apples, marrying fermented petit manseng grape juice with Manchurian Crab apple juice to form a union of summer and autumnal flavors. Slightly effervescent, with notes ranging from golden raisins to apricots, Petit Manchurian’s velvety mouthfeel seduces the palate. At a warm 10% ABV, share this bottle with a bud via a fall porch sesh.
Courtney Mailey, owner of Blue Bee Cider, says, “Each year we are trying out new apples and do trials. … I want to take it to the next step every year and harvest — Manchurian Crab was one of those trials.”
