Spin Cider

Spin Cider Tour de Lopez

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Review of Spin Cider’s Tour de Lopez, co-fermented apple & blackberry juice, finished with loganberry juice. It is my first time trying this, but I’ve had their An Apple for Teacher and Sammamish River Trail.

Photo Sep 19, 7 17 32 PM

<This is a review of a sample bottle provided to Cider Says by Spin Cider.  Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received this for free.  The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review que, considering it is a new release and the info may be helpful for folks deciding to purchase it.  I love free stuff, especially cider!  Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here?  Contact me.>

Cider:  Tour de Lopez
Cidery:  Spin Cider
Cidery Location:  Olalla (Kitsap County) WA
ABV:  7.1%
How Supplied:  750ml bottles
Style: American craft heritage apple & blackberry cider finished with loganberry juice

Cider Description:  Tour de Lopez is a blend of our apple and blackberry wines, finished with juice from loganberries grown here at the farm.  This blend is a tribute to Lopez Island, the flattest, quietest, and most bike-friendly of the San Juan Islands.

Cidery Description:
Why “Spin”?  Cathie and I are bikers and got inspired to open a cidery while on a bike ride in Vermont. We name (almost) all our ciders after our favorite bike routes.
Our approach.  We follow a more traditional cider-making approach, working only with fresh juice that we press ourselves. We age all our ciders, never filter, and never use concentrates. We do very small batches – sometimes only 12 cases per blend.
What’s in the blend?  Most of our blends use both cider apples and dessert apples. Our orchard is young, and just starting to produce, so we source some of our fruit from Yakima and some from an Oregon grower. When we add other fruits, we try to use pure juice – nothing fake. When possible…we grow the fruits ourselves.

Price:  n/a (retails for $15)
Where Bought:  n/a
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  it showed up with the WA Cider Week samples

Photo Sep 19, 7 19 42 PM

First Impression:  Dark purple-red hue.  Low to moderate carbonation.  Smells of sweet tart berry.

Tasting Notes:  Semi-dry.  Light bodied.  Moderate to high tartness and acidity.  Hints of tannins and bitterness.   No sourness or funk.  Notes of blackberry, tart green apple, and a hint of lemon.  Moderate length tart finish.  Low apple flavor.  High berry flavor.  Moderate overall flavor intensity, sessionability, and complexity.

My Opinion:  I liked it.  Lots of berry flavor.  I would have personally preferred a bit more sweetness or less tartness however.

Most Similar to:  Alpenfire Calypso, except with more berry and without the oak influence

Closing Notes:  This sure packed in a lot of berries per bottle, I assume due to both fermenting apple & berry juice together and adding more berry juice afterwards.

Have you tried Spin Cider?  What did you think? 

Spin Cider Sammamish River Trail

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Review of Spin Cider’s Sammamish River Trail, made from a blend of apples, including bittersweet & bittersharp cider apples. It is my first time trying this, but I’ve had their An Apple for Teacher for WA Cider Week, and have their Tour de Lopez (loganberry) in the fridge.

<This is a review of a sample bottle provided to Cider Says by Spin Cider.  Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received this for free.  The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review que, considering it is a new release and the info may be helpful for folks deciding to purchase it.  I love free stuff, especially cider!  Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here?  Contact me.>

Cider:  Sammamish River Trail
Cidery:  Spin Cider
Cidery Location:  Olalla (Kitsap County) WA
ABV:  8.2%
How Supplied:  750ml bottles
Style: American craft heritage cider

Availability:  currently here, direct from the cidery (local pickup or shipped), with hopes to expand in 2021 to farmer’s markets, festivals, and bottle shops

Cider Description:  This complex, apple-heavy blend highlights juices of bittersweet and sharp cider apples with a touch of our own apple brandy to bring out the flavors. The blend takes its name from the popular bike trail that begins at the northern tip of Lake Washington and follows the Sammamish River past the Woodinville wineries and on to Redmond.

Cidery Description: 
Why “Spin”?  Cathie and I are bikers and got inspired to open a cidery while on a bike ride in Vermont. We name (almost) all our ciders after our favorite bike routes.
Our approach.  We follow a more traditional cider-making approach, working only with fresh juice that we press ourselves. We age all our ciders, never filter, and never use concentrates. We do very small batches – sometimes only 12 cases per blend.
What’s in the blend?  Most of our blends use both cider apples and dessert apples. Our orchard is young, and just starting to produce, so we source some of our fruit from Yakima and some from an Oregon grower. When we add other fruits, we try to use pure juice – nothing fake. When possible…we grow the fruits ourselves.

Price:  n/a (retails for $15)
Where Bought:  n/a
Where Drank:  home
How Found:  it showed up with the WA Cider Week samples

First Impression:  Light gold hue. Low carbonation. Smells of tart heirloom apple juice.

Tasting Notes: Semi-dry. Light bodied. Moderate tartness and acidity. Hints of bitterness and tannins. No sourness or funk. Notes of complex heirloom apple with some lemon and floral. Moderate length tart finish. Moderate flavor intensity, complexity, apple flavor, and sessionability.

My Opinion:  I liked it, as did my husband. Easy to drink, yet with some complexity from the cider apples.

Most Similar to:  Whitewood Jonathan and Spin Cider An Apple for Teacher (except slightly more complex and less sweet)

Closing Notes:  This would be perfect in a multipack, as its a nice everyday type of selection, but slightly stepped up from most of the multipack options, even here in the cider capitol of Western WA.

Have you tried Spin Cider?  What did you think? 

WA Cider Week 2020 Tasting Notes – Virtual Edition

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Its that time of year – Washington Cider Week, the 10th annual, September 10-20th 2020. Usually Northwest Cider invites me and other media folks to an awesome exclusive preview tasting event. This year things are different. WA Cider Week is still on, but most events will be virtual, or for local pickup – check out the event calendar here. For me, this means a virtual private tasting, so here are my notes on 4 new cider releases to kick things off.

Photo Sep 11, 4 34 53 PM

>>This is a review of sample bottles/cans provided to Cider Says by Greenwood, Spin, Locust, and Tieton.  Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received it for free.  The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review cue.  I love free stuff, especially cider!  Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here?  Contact me.<<

Photo Sep 11, 8 39 40 PM

Some info on Spin Cider, as this is my first review of their cider – This is a Kitsap county cidery started last year by two cyclists. They are doing a virtual re-opening for WA Cider Week.  Stay tuned as I’ll soon be reviewing 2 other releases from them, ‘Sammamish River Trail’ and ‘Tour de Lopez’. Their ciders are currently available online and for local pickup, but they plan to increase as the Covid situation improves in 2021.

Spin Cider (Olalla WA) An Apple for a Teacher (7.2%): This cider is dedicated to educators, as Cathie & Mark work in teaching & training so can understand the tough time they are having right now. The cidery is even offering special discounts to teachers as this blend rolls out. Mild apple scent, on the sweeter side of semi-dry, some tartness & carbonation, apple-forward with a bit of complexity reminiscent of heirloom apples, but super friendly and sessionable.

Tieton Cider (Yakima WA) Huckleberry 6.9%): This is a new seasonal release using Northwest huckleberries. See my previous Tieton reviews here. Smells of berry, on the sweeter side of semi-dry, low tartness, super juicy, moderate blackberry flavor with a hint of cranberry.

Locust Cider (Woodinville WA) Peach Ginger (6.0%): This is a new release for WA cider week, with peach juice and a hint of ginger, sold in a four pack of 16oz cans. See my previous Locust reviews here . Mild scent, on the sweeter side of semi-dry, mild stone fruit flavor with some citrus and a hint of ginger bite on the finish. It seems like most cideries go way overboard on ginger, but this was nice, as it was so subtle, and didn’t ruin my palette.

Greenwood Cider (Seattle WA) Whiskey Barrel Heirloom (9.0%): This is a new release, made from more than 13 varieties of heirloom, bittersweet, & bittersharp cider apples and aged for 6 months in Westland whiskey barrels. See my previous Greenwood reviews here. Smells of aged spirits, lovely darkened hue from the barrel, on the drier side of semi-dry, complex apple & whiskey flavor, and oak finish with a hint of bitterness.

Closing Notes: I enjoyed all four ciders. Its been awhile since I’ve had a tasting flight, and I had missed the experience. It was fun to have an excuse to open four different ciders too! Remember to check out the WA Cider Week calendar.