Virtue Cider Debuts Bottles

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 24, 2013 8:40PM

Virtue's Sidra de Nava (left) and Percheron. (Chicagoist/Chuck Sudo)

VIrtue Cider takes another step in its growth with the launch of bottled ciders. For cider lovers and fans of the the Michigan-based cidery from former Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall this is good news for what were previously draft exclusive selections.

The bottled ciders are Sidra de Nava and Pecheron. I reviewed Sidra de Nava in July and the Spanish-style cider is still as amazing as I remember, although I wouldn't recommend attempting a long pour directly out of the bottle to open the cider's flavor profile. You still want to decant this and then do the long pour. Sidra de Nava pairs well with fatty foods.

Chicagoist/Chuck Sudo

Percheron is a cidre fermier, a rustic and complex French-style farmhouse cider. It's a blend of last season’s Michigan-grown Northern Spy and high acid apples, fermented with wild yeast and aged in French oak barrels, then blended with freshly pressed apple juice from the 2013 harvest. The result is a bright cider with a tawny copper color and notes of ripe apple, spice from the barrel farmhouse elements.

The bottles will cost you some bucks. They retail for $25 and are available at retail outlets across Chicago, select restaurants (The Publican, Next and Vera have all purchased Virtue bottles), online at Virtue Cider's website and at VIrtue's bottle shop in Fennville, Mich. Future releases include Cidre Nouveau, a Thanksgiving release; the bourbon barrel-aged winter cider The Mitten in December; The Ledbury, an English-style medium cider collaboration with Tom Oliver of Oliver's Cider and Perry in March; Fleur de Pomme, an April release celebrating apple blossom season; and Lapinette, Virtue's cider brut aged in French oak barrels, in May.

Red Streak, Virtue's flagship cider, will remain a draft-only offering and, according to Virtue publicist Helen Baldus, will never be bottled.