Every wine region needs a fruit winery to keep it honest … if that’s not an old saying it should be. While grape wines take on all kinds of different fruit flavours and smells, fruit wines stay true to what they were made of. This cider, the first made at Wagner’s, was made from Mac apples that did not change colour – they were on the inside of the tree and therefore ripened but never changed to that red colour you expect from a Mac. They were picked and plucked from the tree, mashed and fermented using a slow-acting brown ale yeast (according to owner Harold Wagner, the fermentation took all winter). I won’t bore you with the rest of the cider-making details, but suffice it to say, Wagner’s has made another awesome fruit based alcoholic beverage that’s crisp, clean, bright with just enough apple tartness – and wonderfully delicious. It mixes well with Wagner’s Black Ice (black currant) or Raspberry Ice dessert wines – or goes well on it’s own. Mmmm – Mmmm Good.