Oh, how I’ve longed to type these three little words…
Fanfare is back!
It’s been over three years since we released a full run of this wild mulberry-infused cider. April freezes decimated our mulberry crop in 2016 and 2017, killing the fruit before it could ripen on the tree. But not this year. As though they’d learned a lesson, the trees held off blossoming until the latter half of April, ensuring that no late freeze would ruin another crop.
The season was a little shorter than usual – about three weeks in June – but we collected 150 pounds of mulberries this year (with assistance from our lovely fans and Cider Club members). More than half came from the stately mulberry tree at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, and after back-to-back failed seasons, it feels particularly triumphant to finally bring this collaboration to fruition. It certainly takes the sting out of the mosquito bites, berry-stained clothes and my annual bout with poison ivy!
We also tried a new production approach, allowing the mulberry haul to dictate the batch size. In the past, we reserved a certain number of cider gallons and hoped for the best with the mulberry pick. We were inspired by our Virginia Berry Cider Jam in April 2018, when we shared a tiny Fanfare batch using the meager harvest of mulberries that we had collected and frozen over the past two summers. As it turned out, packing about 10 pounds of mulberries into a five-gallon carboy resulted in a version of Fanfare that we had always envisioned but never pulled off – deep purple color with a vibrant, juicy berry flavor.
We applied that same concept to this new batch, infusing 150 pounds of mulberries into 120 gallons of cider. The lion’s share went to our Cider Club in December, but we will release the remaining 50 bottles of Fanfare on Friday, January 18. This will also kick off our 2019 Foraging Series, four new releases featuring four unique foraged fruits: mulberries in January, plums in February, paw paws in March, and persimmons in April. Check back soon for blog posts on each cider!
– Brian Ahnmark
