Press Release: 

(Fennville, MI) – Introducing the 2013 harvest edition of Virtue’s English-style medium, The Ledbury Cider. Find it in bars, restaurants, and retailers in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

For centuries, the English have escaped to the market town of Ledbury and surrounding West Country to enjoy historic inns, pubs, fox hunts, and the beautiful, half-timber Market House that dates back nearly 400 years.

It’s a region with a proud cidermaking tradition that made a convert of Gregory Hall, an American brewer who visited years ago in search of hops. He returned later as a Cider Maker to work with Tom Oliver, who makes some of the world’s finest traditional cider and perry in Ocle Pychard, Herefordshire.

The Ledbury Cider is a Virtue collaboration with Oliver. Combining Michigan-sourced fresh heirloom apples with New England-grown old-world bittersweet varieties, The Ledbury Cider achieves the classic medium farmhouse style of England’s West Country—not too dry, not too sweet, with plenty of ripe apple aroma. We hope it inspires future journeys to this great cider region.

Tasting The Ledbury Cider:

APPLES
The Ledbury Cider is a blend of American apples, including old world bittersweet and new world heirloom varieties.

FERMENTATION
We let the native yeast from the orchard ferment the juice, without any addition of cultured yeast.

FOOD PAIRINGS
Enjoy The Ledbury Cider with a mature English cheddar, savory meat pie, or roasted pork.

GLUTEN FREE
The Ledbury Cider is made with apples and nothing more, and is naturally gluten free.

About Virtue
Virtue Cider is a Michigan-based craft cider company. We produce European-style ciders from fresh apples—never from concentrate—and employ traditional farmhouse production methods that include native and secondary fermentation, use of wild yeasts, and an expansive barrel-aging program.