Bishop Ciders

One of my best and oldest friends got married this past weekend in Lubbock and I was honored that she asked me to be a bridesmaid. Since that meant a long car ride up there already, Kye and I decided on our way home we might as well make a detour to Denton, a town we’d both spent several years in and hadn’t visited in ages (seven years for me, almost four for him). I expected to have very mixed feelings being back there since the four years I spent there were some of the lowest in my life, but that visit turned out to be a fantastic decision. It’s amazing how much a town can change in only seven years and being there brought back far more good memories than bad. We reacquainted ourselves with old haunts and discovered a few new ones as well. I got to drag Kye to a couple of the dive bars I used to frequent (which turned out to be not quite as sketchy as I remembered them being, thank you craft beer and smoking ban) and he introduced me to some of the much more refined places he used to go.

As awesome as being back in Denton was, my favorite stop was in Dallas, the Bishop Cidercade:

Basically $10 allows you to access to a ridiculous number of arcade games and they also have a bar serving several of their beers on tap along with some from other local cideries. It was what I was most looking forward to on this trip mainly because Bishop had some of their ciders on tap that I wouldn't have gotten to try otherwise and they didn’t disappoint (Bishop never does in my opinion). The games were a ton of fun too, even though I’ve never been a huge arcade game fan (mainly from lack of opportunity).

I’ve loved Bishop Cider Co. since I first brought home a six-pack of their Crackberry several months ago. I have no issues admitting that I bought it mainly because of the name and I kind of expected to have buyer’s remorse, but it turned out to be delicious. That led to me tracking down every other cider of theirs I could get my hands on and I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of them (though their seasonal, Suicider, is hands down my favorite and I made sure to buy every single can of it I could get my hands on before it disappeared from the market). They came into being in 2014 and apparently their first ciders were made using apples they bought from Central Market in Dallas.

Since Suicider is no longer around, I’m going to instead gush about Crackberry and their current seasonal, Sour Cherry.

Crackberry is semi-dry made with cranberries and blackberries. It’s deliciously tart with a fuller mouthfeel than I usually expect from cider. The cranberry/blackberry flavors are both prevalent without one flavor overpowering the other and you still get that crisp apple taste as well. One of the guys I work with described it as being a cider made for wine drinkers and I totally agree with that. The Sour Cherry is a blend of apples and sour cherries. It’s a bit drier than the Crackberry, but not unpleasantly so. Again, the cherry and apple flavors are very well-balanced and complement each other nicely.

Basically, everyone should go buy Bishop cider. Right now... cause if you’re reading my blog it obviously means that you have way too much free time and could be doing so much more with your life… like buying/drinking awesome cider.  

Jean-Lous Trocard Crémant de Bordeaux NV

Apparently talking about my best friend, Kye, never gets old for me (because, and I can’t stress this enough, he is awesome and has always been there for me when I needed him, even when we weren’t exactly on speaking terms). Thanks to him, when I was first really starting to get into wine, we were invited into a study group that really did me a lot of good. The first meeting had me a bit skeptical based on the number of people who showed up, but as time went on it dwindled down to just six or so of us who were really focused on furthering our knowledge rather than just showing up for the free-ish booze. I still miss it sometimes, mostly because it forced me to study (mainly so I didn’t come across as a complete idiot to these people who were way more knowledgeable than me) and with my Certified Specialist of Wine exam coming up on the 30^th of this month, I could use a little coercion as far as studying goes.

I hadn’t really thought about the group too much since we all got too busy to keep up with it over a year ago until I realized my store had a Crémant de Bordeaux randomly hidden among its selection of sparkling wine, Jean-Louis Trocard to be exact. I remembered, during an evening spent studying Bordeaux, Laura, the fantastic Advanced Sommelier of the group (and one of the people I credit the most with helping me pass my certified), telling us that Crémants are made in Bordeaux, but hard to find (at least in San Antonio). She told us if we ever found one to definitely pick it up for the group, and seeing this on the shelf made me nostalgic for nights spent blind tasting and studying. For those who don’t know the term Crémant is used to refer to French sparkling wine made using the méthode champenoise and not from the Champagne region.

Since I don’t drink bubbly super often it took me a little while to pick up a bottle for Kye and me to share, but we were both very glad when I finally did. The blend is mostly Semillon with some Sauvignon Blanc, pale gold in color with notes of green apple, lime zest and wet rocks on the nose. The palate is dry and crisp with flavors of golden pear, citrus and a hint of lemongrass. There’s a little bit of funk halfway through (which I personally enjoy), but the bright acidity at the end leaves a refreshing, lingering mouthfeel. It’s very affordable and incredibly enjoyable.

The Ned Sauvignon Blanc 2015

I recently had a discussion with my dad about “epiphany wines” (aka the bottle or glass that first really opened your eyes up to the awesomeness that is wine). His was Gundlach Bundschu’s Gewurztraminer that he tried based on a sommelier’s recommendation at a restaurant. It just so happened that I carried that wine at my store so he got to try it again for the first time in forever. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to his expectations all these years later, but that’s not super surprising.

I didn’t have an epiphany wine so much as I had an epiphany varietal, Sauvignon Blanc, specifically from New Zealand. I’ve mentioned the time I was down from Denton and my parents and I had a blind tasting with three different bottles of NZ Sauvignon Blanc before. What I didn’t mention is that I got back to Denton and made my friend accompany me on a trip to find a bottle of Drylands Sauv Blanc (my favorite from that evening). Thanks to Denton being a dry county there weren’t a whole lot of wine shops to choose from so we wound up driving to Dallas too. Unfortunately nowhere had it or had even heard of it so I think we picked up a bottle of Bitch Grenache (yes, just because I thought the label was hilarious) and some other New Zealand wine. It was actually a pretty fun time despite not finding the particular wine we were looking for.

Several years later I spotted Drylands at a store in San Antonio and of course had to get a bottle of it. Just like my dad with Gundlach Bundschu, I was disappointed. It just lacked the complexity I’d come to expect from that varietal and was rather bland. While it didn’t live up to my memory of it, it still wasn’t a bad bottle of wine, it’s just that by then I’d had better.

One of those better bottles is The Ned Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough. Unlike many NZ Sauv Blancs it’s not so in your face with grapefruit, which can get old rather quick. That’s actually why I stopped drinking or buying this varietal for quite some time (until Kye introduced me to the awesomeness that is Sancerre). It’s a medium-bodied wine that has notes of green pepper, wet grass and gooseberries on the nose. The palate is more fruit forward with lemon peel, passionfruit, and crisp green apple, and of course, a bit of grapefruit. Nicely balanced with sharp acidity and a long-ish finish. This is a super refreshing wine that is lovely by itself or paired with a wide range of dishes. While Kim Crawford and Drylands will always have a special place in my heart, this Sauvignon Blanc beats them not only in price, but also in taste.