Cider club

Traditional 6

JUNE 2025

Welcome to Summer!

A few cool, cloudy days still prevail here and there, but the energy of summer has arrived on Salt Spring Island. We had a very busy May long weekend at the cidery, and now even mid-week there’s a noticeable hustle and bustle on the island and in our tasting room and lounge. As usual, the island is providing a perfect backdrop to all of this activity, with the fields and forests a rich green accented by the colour and fragrance of flowers in bloom. Fruits will soon be forming on the trees and growing and ripening in the sun.

We’ve got some great ciders to share with you this summer. Last March you tasted the 2023 Wild Pear & Quince after it had aged and settled for about a year after fermenting. Now, we have the 2024 harvest’s Wild Pear & Quince for you to enjoy. We’re loving the complexity the quince can add, including a fantastic floral nose and a honey sweetness that accents the residual sugars from the pears. This one has just finished fermenting and will probably continue to develop in flavour, but it’s already quite tasty and ready to enjoy.

There’s also a continuation of our experiments with grape and apple blends with our new Wild Apple Grape. This time we’ve added Concord grapes to our cider at about 5% by volume, then co-fermented on the skins of the grapes. Like our previous batch of Apple Gamay, the grapes synergize with the apples to create some really unique flavours. The end result is delightfully tricky to categorize, and it falls in the same sort of liminal gustatory space as rosés and orange wines do. We’re getting hints of strawberry and honeydew melon, and there’s a nice bit of minerality that adds some complexity too.

From the cellar, we’ve got another look at our Pet Nat de l’Historien. We first included this one in our September 2023 shipment after it fermented and aged over the previous winter, and it’s continued to develop further over the years. It’s made from a number of rare apple varieties brought to us by a couple of Salt Spring’s resident apple historians. Varieties include Catshead, Golden Noble, Fallawater, Ralls' Genet, and Shiawassee to name a few, all picked from historic wild old orchards.

Once again, we’re inviting you to pick half of the ciders in your shipment. Just click on the button at the bottom of the page to go to our special Cider Club shop where you can make your selections for this shipment.

Best wishes for a bright and beautiful summer ahead. Thanks for your continued patronage. Cheers!

Featured Ciders

  • Wild Apple Grape

    Salt Spring Island apples were pressed and blended with a small amount of locally grown Concord grapes, then co-fermented on the skins of the berries. Bottle conditioned to carbonate. This cider is still maturing, but it already tastes fantastic, with notes of strawberry, honeydew melon, and a hint of minerality. 6.7% ABV

  • Pet Nat de l'Historien

    A naturally sparkling cider made from a number of rare apple varieties brought to us by a couple of Salt Spring’s resident apple historians. Varieties include Catshead, Golden Noble, Fallawater, Ralls' Genet, and Shiawassee to name a few, all picked from historic wild old orchards. Fermented slowly by native yeasts. Very dry with a great complexity. 6.6% ABV

  • Wild Pear & Quince

    Made with hand foraged Salt Spring Island wild seed pears, tannic cider pears, Asian pears, and quince. Cold fermented using native yeast, then bottle conditioned. Gently sweet due to the natural residual sugar from the pears. This unique cider has a delightfully floral nose and notes of white grape and honey. 6.2% ABV

PICK YOUR THREE CIders!

All shipments will include the ciders listed above. You get to pick the rest.

Click the button below to visit our Cider Club store. Select three ciders from the choices there, and we’ll include them with your shipment. Please only select three ciders—additional ciders will be excluded from the shipment.

If no selection is made by June 15th, we’ll pick them for you. (Don’t worry, they’ll be good ones!)

Boxes will ship on or before June 20th, or as soon as your card on file is processed on its reoccurring subscription charge date if it normally falls thereafter.