2018 Rocky Ground Cider 'Lil's Pet-Nat', and what wild apples mean for terroir

Rocky Ground Cider is dedicated to wild foraged and old heirloom apple varieties. Their apple practices bring terroir into the cider conversation.

Hello, paid subscribers! It has been a little while since our last tasting note, and I want to highlight a cider that I’ve really been loving. I’m a little picky when it comes to ciders. I like most styles and sweetness levels, from bone dry to sweet, but cider, like all wines, can range widely in flavor, texture, and feel. I tend to go for ciders that have a nice balance of sweetness, bitterness, and acidity, with some tannin (that’s the grippy feeling).

I want to feel the integrity of the apples, and don’t usually go for ciders with added flavors, although there are always ones out there that surprise me. Bitter flavors are very welcome to my cider palate—in fact, finding a cider with a healthy amount of bitterness is what keeps me coming back to it.

Since moving to Maine, I’ve had the pleasure of trying many local ciders from different cideries around the state (check out my recent post about Sean Turley’s cider club), and Rocky Ground Cider has fascinated me.

Rocky Ground Cider is run by Abbey & Angus Deighan. They’re a Maine cidery dedicated to harvesting wild apples and apples from old heirloom trees in the local area. They use wild yeast to ferment the fruit, creating a unique blend every year that really speaks to the land they work from. Often, the word “terroir” doesn’t mean much with cider.

I mostly think of terroir as “a sense of place”, but with many ciders, apples get shipped in from across the country, makers use different yeast strains to control the fermentations, and flavors are added (think hops, peppers, berries, etc). I’m not saying those ciders aren’t worth drinking or aren’t worthy of the category, but creating a truly terroir-driven cider means using cider and wild apple varieties close to home, and letting them speak for themselves in the beverage.