Wofford’s puts the méthode in cider

Using a technique that has been for the most part abandoned by winemakers the world over due to labor costs, Wofford Acres Vineyards is putting the méthode ancestrale back to work.

The staff at Wofford Acres is implementing the méthode right out of the back of the vineyard's rustic country barn that matches the time frame of the tried and true procedure.

Transitioning time is the sound of 1960s rock and roll playing on the radio as the bottling crew of three completes each step in cider making, by hand, one bottle at a time.

There are a few ways to get bubbles or carbonation in a wine or cider and this happens when yeast breaks down sugars during secondary bottle fermentation.

Fermenting wine twice in this way produces champagne and is referred to as the méthode champenoise but more specifically Wofford is taking it even further with hand riddling and disgorging known as the méthode ancestral. The method ancestral allows a winemaker or cider maker to extract the carbonation producing yeast that otherwise clouds the product.

This makes the production of each bottle of Wofford's cider labor intensive but well worth the effort. The results are clearly delicious.

It becomes clear

The méthode ancestral was created to eliminate cloudiness in champagne that results from the yeast. And while the technique was invented nearly 200 years ago by Madame Cliquout, she would have been pleased to see it in use today — even with Led Zepplin playing in the backround.

"We use traditional techniques applied to our cider," explained Paul Wofford, 59, winemaker at Wofford Acres. Paul and Ann Wofford first opened their Camino winery in 2003. Paul has over 30 years of experience working in the wine industry — much of that time spent making mead and fruit wine in the Santa Cruz area.

"I didn't want to do an apple wine and this was something different," Paul said of his cider that he describes as dry and not sweet.

Like it's fermented cousins beer and wine, cider can be made with a number of different ingredients that alter the flavor profile. For example, the types of apples used for the juice.

Wofford's cider is made with juice from neighboring solar-powered Barsotti Juice Company. Apple varieties used include the golden delicious for sweetness, pippins for tartness, fuji for aroma and the Arkansas black for tannin.

The juice is then fermented in old French oak barrels for six months. After this first fermentation the crew at Wofford does the secondary bottle fermentation in champagne bottles with a little bit of sugar and yeast added.

Turn, turn, turn

Then begins the riddling. The bottles are laid on their side on a rack at a 45 degree angle. This allows the yeast to settle in the top of the bottle. Each bottle gets one eighth of a turn every three to four days.

With the yeast settled against the cap of the bottle, the necks are frozen and the lees — dead yeast — are ejected from the bottle by the pressure created by the carbon dioxide when the cap is popped. The cider is then capped again, labeled and ready to sell.

"It's been a hit. Last year what should have lasted a year — only lasted five months," Paul said of the cider's popularity.

With each bottle hand-filled, hand-riddled and labeled with care, there are 250 cases of this cider produced each year. It is sold exclusively at the Wofford Acres Vinyards tasting room, 1900 Hidden Valley Lane in Camino.

"It's a small amount of hands-on wine," Paul said of Wofford's overall annual production of 1,200 cases of red wine, white wine and cider.

"Winemaking is a glamorous, wonderful lifestyle. I wouldn't change anything but it's very difficult," Paul said.

To get more information about the availability of cider call 530-626-6858.