South Hill
At South Hill Cider, apples come from wild trees, abandoned orchards and orchards of high quality cider apples. Using traditional cider-making techniques owner and cidermaker Steve Selin create timeless, well-balanced ciders. He has planted an organically farmed cider orchard on a hilltop south of Ithaca to be part of a harmonious ecosystem that relies on diversity and fertility as its foundation. South Hill Cider produces ciders with individuality, quality, and elegance reflecting the terroir of the Finger Lakes region.
Steve Selin, the cidermaker, apple picker, and community orchardist has been bottling his own cider since 2003. He is a musician grounded firmly in traditional American Old-Time music – a genre that has many parallels to cider: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries both cider and Old-Time music were staples of American culture, only to be sidelined by more mechanized and industrial rivals. Both the music and cider are maturing and being re-incorporated into American culture in a very real and organic manner. Musical references inspire many of the ciders’ names.
Wines
Bluegrass Russet Cider
Varietal: Apples
Color: Sparkling Cider
Farming Practice:
Bluegrass Russett is a blend of traditional American cider apples (primarily Golden Russet), with some English bittersweets. Hints of lemongrass and melon, soft florals on the nose. Lively evervescence, herbal, musky & faintly farmy. Delightful slightly sweet crisp finish. pH 3.6, TA 6.15, RS 1.2.
Packbasket Sparkling Cider
Varietal: Apples
Color: Sparkling Cider
Farming Practice:
Last season (2014) yielded a very light crop for wild apples and pears across Central New York. However, with a bit of luck we found one stand of wild trees in a high valley with a good crop. They must have been nipped by a spring frost some years back and not fruited until we stumbled upon them this season. These hidden trees were far enough from the dirt road that the only way we could harvest them was to haul them out on our backs. 100% Wild pippin apples and pears.Complex, fruity, toasty, bone dry. Methode Champenoise then aged on the lees – undisgorged.
Pet-Nat Cider
Varietal: Apples
Color: Sparkling Cider
Farming Practice: Organic
Organic. 100% Wild Pippin apple trees. Spontaneous fermentation in steel and put into bottle just before fermentation has finished to capture remaining CO2 to create bubbles. Released non-disgorged. 10 cs produced.
Pommeau
Varietal: Spirits
Color: Brandy
Farming Practice:
South Hill Pommeau is a blend of 1/3 Apple Spirits (Eau de Vie) with 2/3 unfermented and unfiltered apple cider. It is aged for months, over which time it naturally clarifies itself. Then what is siphoned off is a a shining amber liquid of exquisite character. Our Pommeau highlights the rich beauty that is found at the core of high-quality heirloom apples unaffected by any methods other than peaceful passing time.
Prelude Cider
Varietal: Apples
Color: Sparkling Cider
Farming Practice: Organic
Organic. 100% wild apples. Wild apples fermented and aged on the pomace in 2016, then pressed and blended with fresh pressed 2017 wild apples for a second fermentation (pet nat). This cider is an exercise in creativity and shows complex aroma development as a result of using wild apples, wild fermentation and long maceration. Unfined, unfiltered. 52 cases produced.