Spirited Apple Wine

STYLE: Port-Style Spirited Wine

AROMA & FLAVOR: Notes of caramel and oak, with woody roots, rich apple depth and warming brandy heat.

APPLE VARIETIES: Organic Washington dessert apples, primarily high-acid varieties such as heirloom Granny Smith.

CIDERMAKER NOTES: This wine goes through all of the stages of apple metamorphosis: it begins as apple juice which we ferment into an apple wine. We then fortify this wine with our apple brandy and back-sweeten with apple juice. The finished wine ages with oak spirals or in a barrel. This is considered a ‘fortified wine’ and not a distilled spirit. Similar to the French method “vin doux natural,” whereby wines are fortified with a neutral spirit to stop the yeast before fermentation is complete and all sugars have been converted into alcohol. The wines thus retain some naturally occurring sugar, perceived as sweetness on the palate. Our brandy is custom-distilled by Admiralty.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS: Serve at room temperature in a port glass as a digestif or after-dinner wine. Lovely on the rocks, in a cocktail or in a hot toddy on a winter evening. Enjoy with a plate of hard cheese and sliced apple or pear. Also lovely sipped with a sorbet to create a lively exchange of cool and heat. Try an “A is for Apple, B is for Bourbon”: Into a shaker glass full of ice, pour 1 oz. Finnriver Spirited Apple Wine and 1 oz. bourbon. Cover and shake hard until glass is chilled. Strain up into a cocktail glass. Optional garnish with a citrus peel and/or cinnamon stick to swirl around the glass while you sip.

SWEETNESS: Sweet but not wholly dessert. Retains some naturally occurring sugar.

ALCOHOL PERCENTAGE: 18.5% abv

BOTTLE VOLUME: 500 ml. (16.9 oz.)

ARTWORK: Anna Daeuble