Finnriver Cidery & Point No Point

Last weekend, as my final birthday request- I wrangled up two of my favorite people and we hopped the ferry to Kingston.  From there we had a bit of an eventful drive, full of sugary coffee drinks and bizarre fender benders (not us).  Our intended destination was Finnriver Cidery & Farm in Chimacum, on the Olympic Peninsula.  I sort of offhandedly decided that 2011 is going to be a year full of ciders.  So far- I've done pretty alright for myself.  There seems to be an uprising of local cideries in Washington, and I'm totally in love.

 

"Come quickly, I am tasting stars!" - Don Perignon

Crystie humored us for over an hour- letting us taste every cider that they had available, as well as a pear cider that they're still experimenting with.  We brought home a bottle of their Sprited Apple Wine- which is an apple wine that's been combined with apple brandy.  I'm drinking a glass right now.  We also brought home their Farmstead Cider, made with heirloom apples.  It's very dry and not very sweet- quite different than what I'm used to.  I love it.

We had a few hours to kill before we needed to catch the ferry back- and so we made a bit of a detour to check out Point No Point.

 

We also made a quick pitstop at CB's Nuts to pick up some of their Oregon pumpkin seeds, and peanuts.  It's a tiny little space, but worth checking out- mostly for the free samples.

If you're in the Seattle area, but aren't able to make it out to Chimacum just for cider- Bottleworks in Wallingford carries a few of their varieties, and from what it sounds like- Finnriver is working on getting some of their ciders into some local bars as well. 

All in all- a pretty fantastic day.