Characteristics:
Effervescent Nally’s Dry Cider is made from selected Central Otago apple varieties to give the right balance of flavour and bite. Our apples are specially grown and juiced for us by Darlings Orchard at Ettrick. That juice is fermented and conditioned for at least six months to mellow before being blended to 5% alcohol and less than 1% sugar (0.7% percent to be precise). Serve chilled and enjoy without guilt.
What is a dry cider?
Quite simply, one without added sugar, corn syrup, fructose, or high volumes of fruit concentrate. We called this beverage simply Nally’s Cider until an explosion of sugar fueled drinks in the cider space confused the market so much we decided to help customers make better buying decisions by sharpening up our product description.
Tasting Notes:
Nally’s Dry Cider pours an attractive pale golden hue with a lively bead of carbonation. Served chilled, the aroma is sweetish with green apple skin and a subtle waxy note adding complexity. Medium bodied, soft and spritzy, the palate is drier than the aroma suggests and the cider finishes with an elegant, deftly balanced crispness.
Out of town? Buy a bottle here.
Heritage Cider Day
We’ve been making cider the traditional way since 1999 when Nally’s Dry Cider was first made from wind-fallen roadside apples, juiced, fermented then served at an uncut 7 percent alcohol by volume.
The high drinkability factor of that original cider made it too potent a brew, so we dialed the alcohol back to 5 per cent after a couple of years. Then, as demand grew, we moved to commercially grown apples.
But we still clear the brewery most autumns and enlist the help of our strongest mates to hand-press over 600kg of locally-sourced apples to keep tradition alive.
We call the result Heritage Cider an exciting seasonal cider with true terroir. At 6.5% ABV it demands the respect of a cider of by-gone days.
We’re indebted not just to the people of Southland for the windfallen fruits of their old trees – and the marvelous work done by Robert and Robyn Guyton whose Heritage Orchard Project is saving the delicious cooking and cider apples of yesteryear for us all – it’s a privilege to be able to make old-fashioned, old English cider the old-fashioned way with the genuine old-fashioned apples they are working so hard to save.
The fruits of our April 2017 Cider Day were launched at a Cider Maker’s Luncheon on August 23, and the remainder is now available to purchase – while it lasts. And the taste of last summer? Delicious if we do say so outselves!
