Fourthworld Photography
Flatbreads topped with seasonal vegetables make a good pairing with an oak-aged cider.
Deirdre Birmingham and John Biondi started The Cider Farm, an orchard near Mineral Point, in 2003, aiming to produce European-style hard ciders. They learned to hand-graft trees that would produce the types of apples they wanted — heritage varieties from England and France long used for hard cider, not eating. These apples, with tannins and higher acid content that lend complexity to the cider, are more like wine grapes. It took several years for the trees to grow enough to produce the quantity of apples needed for commercial cider production, but The Cider Farm cider is now on the market. In March, Birmingham and Biondi opened a tasting room adjacent to Brennan’s Cellars on Madison’s west side. There, hand-crafted ciders from their farm are paired with small bites and a few larger plates.
Both the cider farm and the tasting room are truly passions of Biondi and Birmingham, evident in their attention to guests, knowledge of their product, and their excitement in sharing it with others. The menu is simple and changes weekly. Great thought has been given to both sourcing local ingredients and choosing flavors that pair well with the ciders.
The tasting room is comfortable, with a beautiful wood bar taking up a corner of the room, and tables dotting the perimeter. The garage-door style windows are raised on pleasant days and guests overflow to the patio.
I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the items on the tasting menu. Most of the ingredients are extremely fresh and prepared in a way that allows the flavor of each ingredient to shine through.
I like the option to build your own charcuterie board with various meats and cheeses, served alongside seasonal jams, pickled vegetables, honey, and a sliced baguette or gluten-free crackers.
Another appetizer, the Driftless Bean Dip, is an unexpected delight. A blend of red beans, roasted red peppers and pickled carrots, it’s well carried by slices of baguette. Radishes come on the side.
A flatbread appetizer appeals first to the eye, with bold layers of green watercress pesto and whole arugula leaves, blistered red-orange grape tomatoes, dots of white ricotta and gorgeous purple radishes. Texturally it’s varied: crispy flatbread, crunchy radishes, yielding tomatoes and creamy ricotta.
Go for brunch if you can. The Croque Madame was one of the most beautiful presentations I’ve seen, served open-face with Seven Seeds Organic ham, a velvety bechamel sauce, a light shaving of Roth Grand Cru and thinly sliced Canopy Gardens tomatoes, topped with a picture-perfect sunny-side-up egg and freshly cracked pepper.
Crepes are thin and chewy and just a bit crispy on the edges. The filling changes based on what’s available. Recently a light layer of smoked salmon was set off with lemon ricotta that added a subtle zip, along with the hearty savory flavor of buttered leeks.
Let’s not forget the real draw here: the cider. Eight varieties are available: six from The Cider Farm, plus two guest taps. Order a flight to sample four. For those just beginning in the cider world, the rosé is a good place to start. It’s a light, fruity variety made with a rare variety of red-fleshed apples from the farm, which makes it a sparkling rosy pink. The Tremlett is at the opposite end of the flavor spectrum. Its high tannin content makes it the most like a dry white wine.
For those interested in an authentic English-style cider, try the classic dry, made with five different tannic English apples. This gives it a tart front end and a crisp finish. The cyser is the highest alcohol-by-volume variety on the menu, with just a touch of unfermented honey added in to lend a subtle sweetness.
Hard cider’s popularity is growing in the Midwest. Madison’s Restoration Cider has been making cider with Wisconsin apples for several years. Brix Cider opened a tasting room in Mt. Horeb this past year featuring their orchard-grown ciders. And Old Sugar Distillery has recently introduced its own line of craft hard cider called Hidden Cave, made from local apples.
Will cider ever seduce Wisconsin away from beer? Maybe not. But The Cider Farm tasting room may be the place that starts it all.
The Cider Farm
8216 Watts Road; 608-217-6217; theciderfarm.com
3 pm-9 pm Tues.-Thurs., 11 am-9 pm Fri.-Sat., 10 am-6 pm Sun. (brunch served 10 am-2 pm); $6-$25
