For many of us, this hasn’t been a great summer for traveling. Even if you’ve been able to take an occasional weekend getaway to the beach or countryside, bigger trips are sadly not a part of our “normal” lives right now. For cider fans, visiting cideries in other states or cidermaking regions is often an impetus for road trips or flights. Visiting these charming places, often tucked away into rolling hills against a beautiful agricultural landscape, and meeting the people who make the cider we love, can be one of the highlights of our year.
While we can’t offer you a plane ticket to Vermont — one of the country’s most prolific cider making states (by our count, there are over 20 cideries in this small state!) — we can share this absolutely breathtaking video titled, “Vermont Terroir Cider: A Moment in Time.” It comes to us by way of Terrior Review, a beautiful online site, part literary magazine and part food magazine, about nature, culture, food, wine and place. It’s filled with immersive stories and images of terroir-driven foods and beverages and their makers. Meg Maker, based in Lyme, New Hampshire, founded Terroir Review in 2008, and while her travels have led her to cover stories from all over the world, there is a special focus on the site of New England’s food community.
“Vermont Terroir Cider” is just such a piece. Maker wrote and produced the video, and collaborated with Videographer Johannes Kroemer, Ninetynine Films, and the pair spent lots of time with the cidermakers featured. Many, many hours of film were carefully edited into this quiet, thoughtful exploration of cider, a sort of meditation on the confluence of nature, science, passion and love for the land that these cidermakers share. The makers in the video include Teddy Weber of Tin Hat Cider in Roxbury, Vermont, Eleanor Léger, Garrett Huber, Mary Morton, and Ben Applegate of Eden Specialty Ciders in Newport, Vermont, Jon Piana and Christopher Piana of Fable Farm Fermentory in Barnard, Vermont, and Deirdre Heekin, Caleb Barber, and Camila Carrillo of La Garagista in Barnard, Vermont. Their words and stories are woven together to create a powerful snapshot of this verdant corner of the world, one which helps you feel as if you’ve gotten a taste of the soil’s fruits, even if you’ve never been there in person.
It’s three tranquil minutes worth giving yourself over to, a tiny virtual vacation in the middle of your day. Plus, we guarantee it will put Vermont on your must-travel-to list for the future! Thanks to Meg Maker for allowing us to share this video on Cider Culture.
- Video and feature image: Terroir Review