Review: Peckham’s Cider Home Block

Alex and Caroline Peckham planted their first cider apple trees on their New Zealand orchard in 2004, quickly growing and moving into their current orchard three years later in the Moutere Valley near Nelson. In 2012, the couple built a new cider barn with a shiny new European juicing line. Today, the Peckhams and their team at Peckham’s Cider hard-harvest that estate-grown fruit before milling, pressing and fermenting the 100 percent fresh-pressed juice.

From the Reserve line, the Home Block cider (available in the United States through Shelton Brothers) is a blend of cider apples from Browns and Chisel Jersey to Harry Master’s Jersey and Kingston Black. Packaged both in can and pop-top bottle to bring heritage fruit and cider to the consumer in various forms, this wild-fermented cider is full-bodied and fully flavored, with a rich and luxurious apple nose and a broad, bold palate of vibrant fruit and supple tannins to match. Like Peckham’s did in this featured photo (above), get some buttery soft cow’s milk cheese, like New Zealand’s Kaikoura Cheese Harnett, and find yourself in a sunny park, stat.