Gorge Farmhouse Cider
Runcible Cider is our family orchard and cidery on the rocky prairie above beautiful, tiny Mosier, Oregon. We grow over 1000 traditional cider apple trees, and we ferment these apples as well as heirloom apples grown on neighboring orchards in the Columbia River Gorge.
Traditional cider apples, often called spitters for their bitterness, bring an important balance of tannin, acid, and sugar needed for cider. This desirable complexity has flavors that range from wet wood and mushroom to bright green apple and strawberry. Our farmhouse cider is made with the crop we produce year upon year, the flavors varying with sun, rain, and soil. We also make seasonal blends with locally grown fruit.
For well over a century, our area has provided prime conditions for apples, pears, cherries, and many other fruits. There’s something in the soil, the environment, and the weather that makes the area an orchard jewel box. It has a rich geologic history of volcano flow and Missoula flood, the powerful carving by the Columbia and a strong four-season climate.
We do cider the old school way by hand-picking our apples, washing them in well water, running the apples through the mill and pressing and fermenting the juice in our cider barn. Final blends put each cider in proper balance, and we finish with a natural effervescence in the bottle.
Some of our traditional cider apple trees:
Campfield
Dabinett
Kingston Black
Nehou
Porter's Perfection
Roxbury Russet
Wickson Crab
Yarlington Mill
Chisel Jersey
Bedan
Harrison
Golden Russet
Ashmead's Kernel
Herefordshire Redstreak
Bramley's Seedling