Patois "Infinite Canon III" Cider, Rappahannock County, Virginia 2022

FROM PATOIS:

THE CIDER: 28% certified organic Grimes Golden and Stayman apples from The Farm at Sunnyside in Washington, harvested in 2022. Clay loam of granitic schist with quartz fragments, 850’. 26% Arkansas Black from Williams Orchard in Flint Hill, harvested in 2022. Gravelly loam of granitic gneiss, 650’. 6% unsprayed York from Rock Hill Farm in Flint Hill, harvested in 2022. Loam of granitic schist with mica fragments, 550’. 41% perpetual reserve (2019-2021) from these sites.

The perpetual reserve is an attempt to mediate the (sometimes wildly) variant Virginia vintages and combine the depth of aging with the energy of the most recent year’s fruit. 2022 produced more delicate and earthy fruit, so this iteration is more about florals and finesse.

THE PRODUCER: Patois is Patrick Collins and Danielle LeCompte. Our focus is balance: How do untended apple trees maintain their ecological equilibrium, and how can an orchard mirror this dynamic? How will several successions of microorganisms collectively transform the fruit? How do we align ourselves and our work with the interconnecting cycles of nature? Can two people do this? We don’t own land because our scale cannot support those costs. Foraging allows us to utilize existing (if scattered) noncommercial fruit of supreme quality. These trees hold both the historical lessons of past plantings - sites proven by survival - and the genetic renewal through seedlings for future resilience. We observe these trees and attempt to restore them where we have regular access. We may also seek to propagate them through both grafting and sprouting seeds should landowners allow. Sometimes we imagine our own orchard of our favorite found varieties interspersed with vines; sometimes we think no single Shangri-La will ever approach the complexity of so many unique inputs assembled by a century of chance. We work fairly oxidatively in the cellar, due partly to aesthetic aims and partly to our minimal infrastructure. Everything is done by hand on a one or two person scale. Sparkling wine can be constrained by technique and fixed parameters, but we try to think creatively to achieve our goals with only fruit and time. While the ciders and wines will continue to evolve in the bottle upon release, they are not precious and are meant to be enjoyed. We hope to demonstrate that conventionally undervalued fruit is capable of producing delicious and complex wines when treated with intention and care.