We make Abel Methode Cider in small quantities each vintage from freshly harvested apples and pears.  All fruit is hand-picked, milled, then fermented dry.

Our cider is unfined and unfiltered. This basically means we allow our cider to naturally clarify via gravity, this gentle process helps preserve the natural fruit characteristics.

Our cider is fermented in bottle like champagne.  This natural carbonation gives a finer bubble which retains aromas and flavours.  Bottle fermentation adds complexity and texture, as well as giving cloudiness from the yeast sediment that remains.  

Abel Methode Cider is bone dry with zero sugar (glucose/fructose). This is the way we like to drink cider - dry, refreshing and full of natural fruit sweetness derived from the delicious apples and pears that the Nelson-Tasman region is famous for.

"If there's one fruit that approaches the grape's ability to yield a fermented product worthy of connoisseurship it's the apple (and its close relative, the pear) - in its fermented form, cider". Jim Clarke, Journal of Fine Wine