Apple wine Blending recommendation

[Nepali Brewboy (Chuck)]

Hello, all the gurus in the group.

Well. U am a newbie to the cidery business, have some experience in brewing, but I have ventured into making cidery and making some still apple wine, and sparkling, and was wondering if there any gurus that can inspire and impart some inputs in blending to create excellent tasting wine. All the apples I use are mostly, gala, golden delicious, and fuji apples, Any suggestion and recommendation will be highly appreciated. 

We are a small cidery in the Himalayas https://manangbeverages.wordpress.com/

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

I grow apples and grapes and have made some apple-grape blended beverages that are outrageously tasty (some also with honey too). I encourage you to obtain scions of well known cider apple varieties that can be grown in your climate, as those four you are growing, while being famous and tasty eating apples, won't provide the full range of flavors you can get in cider. I don't know what the import controls are for viable plant material in your country, but surely there must be some ways you can get other varieties? In the USA some good types I am trying include Anna, Harrison, Reverend Morgan, Cox Orange Pippin, Newtown pippin, Mutsu (Mutsu aka Crispin is sterile, so needs a good pollinator nearby), and Granny Smith.

You can also plant seeds of apples and if they produce good fruit you can name it yourself. This is obviously a long term project!

Grape varieties I have successfully blended with apples are Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Thompson's, Barbera, Syrah.

I don't know if these will do well in your climate, though. I imagine you need apples and grapes that will tolerate a colder climate. I suggest you look into similar growing zones and see what will work with your growing season and chill hours. I would suggest Anna first, as it is a good all-around apple for eating, pies, and cider, it blooms early, produces early and is a heavy cropper. Also if your customers like Gala, they will love Anna! My Reverend Morgan seems to be a heavy cropper too, but requires a longer season and produces a much tarter apple better for cider and cooking. Harrison has a long history in the USA for cider too. Northern Spy and Macintosh are two other popular varieties known in northern states that are great for your cider and also will sell well for eating.

I am sure the UK folks will have a completely different list of good choices!

[Stephen Buffington]

Hi Chuck, I will not lie, those varieties will be tough to make a balanced cider with. Besides buying or growing other varieties you could use different yeast strains to create balance. I would lean into the richness of Golden Delicious with 58w3, creating full mouthfeel. You can capture the nice aromatics of Gala and Fuji with QA23. Try to get them all ripe, especially the Goldens, which I would have be more than half of the blend. Good luck,

Stephen Buffington

Shawnee Hill Farm

206.941.6353

On Jun 26, 2023, at 12:06 AM, Nepali Brewboy (Chuck) <chh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello, all the gurus in the group.

Well. U am a newbie to the cidery business, have some experience in brewing, but I have ventured into making cidery and making some still apple wine, and sparkling, and was wondering if there any gurus that can inspire and impart some inputs in blending to create excellent tasting wine. All the apples I use are mostly, gala, golden delicious, and fuji apples, Any suggestion and recommendation will be highly appreciated. 

We are a small cidery in the Himalayas https://manangbeverages.wordpress.com/

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