Serious Cider
Ashmead’s Kernel, Pomme Gris, Cox’ s Orange Pippen, Roxbury Russets…these are some of the heirloom apples grown at Foggy Ridge, a cidery and orchard in southern Virginia, about an hour from here and a worthwhile autumnal day trip. After what seems like forever up 52 and past Mt Airy and a Tastee Freeze out of 1960 that serves homemade peach milkshakes in season, you arrive at Foggy Ridge’s tidy little silver building in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Foggy Ridge is owned and run by the elegant Diane Flynt. She and her workers press old and forgotten varities into delicious hard cider. It’s alcohol content is low (ish) - 7 percent or so - and its flavor is crisp, bubbly and ripe. I recently had a chance to get up to Foggy Ridge, and after a tasting and a tour of the spotless, stylish cidery (think Ikea meets modern Johnny Appleseed - there are tables and chairs outside in shades of apple green and red), we sat outside with a picnic. Diane brought us a glass of apple juice they had pressed that week. And of course we had a bottle of cider with our sandwiches and fruit.
If you can’t make it up to Foogy Ridge, try some of their cider at Single Brothers (a bar on Trade Street), where it is available by the bottle, or pick it up aor nother brand of local hard cider, made by McRitchie Winery and Ciderworks, at City Beverage on Burke Street. Foogy Ridge’s three flavors of ciders tend to be off-dry, with the driest being their “Serious Cider” and the sweetest being “Sweet Stayman,” although all have some acidity to balance out the sugar. I’ve found McRitchie’s cider to be a bit drier. They’re all fabulous.
Foggy Ridge will be open weekends until December, but will have an open house on Oct. 3 with homemade pizza brought in by Dogtown Pizza’s mobile oven, and apple expert Tom Burford.
