Winter Orchard Update: How This Year’s Harvest Shaped Our Ciders

From Smith Brothers Farms to your glass, a look back at this season’s fruit.

As we step into a new year and the apple trees rest under a blanket of winter snow, it’s the perfect time to look back at the growing season that just wrapped up—and the fruit that will be shaping our ciders all year long.

City Orchard proudly sources apples from Smith Brothers Farms in North Rose, NY — a family farm with roots dating back to 1929, when Grandpa Smith first purchased the land. Nearly a century later, their dedication to growing quality fruit still shines through in every harvest.

This past season brought its share of variability across the region, but growers with strong crop sets were rewarded with an ideal balance of sun and rain. The result was exceptional fruit, with many of our staple varieties reaching 14 brix — a measure of natural sugar in the juice — and some specialty apples climbing as high as 20 brix. That kind of ripeness gives us the building blocks for layered, expressive cider.

This year also marked our first harvest from a newly planted Baldwin orchard. First discovered in the 1700s, Baldwin was once a cornerstone apple in the Northeast before the harsh winter of 1934 wiped out many orchards. The variety never fully recovered in mainstream production, and today it isn’t widely grown for fresh eating or large-scale processing.

Among cider makers, though, Baldwin remains a beloved apple. It brings structure, depth, and classic New England character to a blend, and it now plays a starring role in our King Blossom specialty cider. We’re excited for you to taste what this young Baldwin block can do as it continues to mature in the years ahead.

It’s humbling to think about all the little (and not so little) steps required to bring these ciders to you — from pruning and thinning in the orchard, to harvest and pressing in New York, to fermenting, blending, and cellaring, and finally to pouring that glass in our Houston taproom. We’re deeply grateful to everyone who helped make those steps possible and turned this year into such a success.

Great fruit sets the foundation, but our job is to turn it into cider that truly earns its place in your glass. After tasting through multiple lots from this harvest, I can confidently say this vintage is one of our best yet. We can’t wait for you to experience it in the taproom or at your own table as the new year unfolds.

Here’s to another year of blossoms, harvests, and ciders shared with friends and family.

Mat

Orchard Manager & Co-Founder

City Orchard