By Erin James
Home to 1,500 cider apple trees, production facility, family farm and home, Dragon’s Head Cider is a microculture of its own. Owned-and-operated by Wes and Laura Cherry, the Vashon, Washington, cidery was named for the dragon who guards the apples of immortality in Greek Mythology’s Garden of Hesperides—the beast also shields the cidery’s bottles as the label.
Dragon’s Head presses, ferments, blends and bottles all at their estate, including the Wild Fermented cider that was an experiment gone right. Allowing the yeasts present on the apples from the farm to run freely through the run, this robust, funky, barnyard-y cider is clean, crisp and dry on the palate, with feral roundness and solid apple core, along with pear, honeysuckle and floral notes on the edges.
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