Simple is often best–think of a just caught whole fish brushed with fruity olive oil and grilled on a bed of fresh herbs. Or pasta topped with fresh tomatoes, basil and a syrupy balsamic vinegar. Simple is also best with cider.

Foggy Ridge Cider begins in the orchard with apples carefully selected for their unique flavors and grown for taste, not appearance. In our cidermaking, we aim to put this fruit in the bottle with minimal manipulation.

For the 2007 vintage we offer three ciders:

• Foggy Ridge's First Fruit cider blends early season heirloom apples in a slightly sweet refreshing cider to drink, like Thomas Jefferson, on its own or with a meal.
• Serious Cider mixes traditional English cider apples like Stoke Red and Dabinett with the colonial American favorites Ashmead's Kernel and Roxbury Russet. This crisp light food friendly cider is a refreshing drink at any time.
• The famous Virgnia Stayman apples ripen late in mountain orchards but are worth the wait. Our Sweet Stayman Cider blends the original Stayman apple with heirloom varieties like Grimes Golden and Cox's Orange Pippin to create a medium sweet cider to enjoy at any time.

Food and Cider Pairings

Chicken Satay, Bar-B-Que, Venison Stew, strong ripe cheeses, grilled fish...hard cider can be paired successfully with many foods. Experiment and find the combinations that appeal to your own palate. We've found these food and cider pairings especially attractive:

• Traditional French recipes from Normandy such chicken sautéed with shallots and finished with a little cream and Sweet Stayman cider. Or pork roast browned in bacon then roasted in First Fruit cider and stock, with apples and onions.
• Asian food pairs well with cider–either a more dry cider like Foggy Ridge Serious Cider for sweet dishes or Sweet Stayman for fiery ones.
• Hearty food pares surprisingly well with hard cider. Beef or venison chili is delicious with First Fruit or Sweet Stayman. Barbeque of all stripes–tangy vinegar based pork BBQ needs Sweet Stayman or First Fruit; Texas red sauce BBQ marries well with Serious Cider.

See these Recipes for more ideas:

• Mary Margaret Shelton's Apple Cake
• Grouper with Apples, Roasted Shallots and Peas
• Cider Pot au Feu
• Apple and Leek Stock
• Allen's Favorite Stir Fry