Good news for the cider industry with today’s passage of the CIDER Act. The CIDER Act provides a much needed update to the tax and regulatory framework cider. To date, the regulatory framework and tax structure for cider has been known to cause cider makers angst given how cider is characterized under the law. Now,
2nd annual Pacific Northwest Cider Awards: A celebration of creativity and diversity.
The Pacific Northwest Cider Awards (PNWCA) held its second annual cider competition on June 5 and 6 in Seattle. On Friday, June 5, a panel of twenty judges made up primarily of media and cider enthusiasts headed to Seattle Capitol Cider to taste about 145 products in multiple cider categories. Over 35 cideries from the Pacific Northwest participated in the PNWCA. On Saturday, June 6, following the awards, Seattle Cider Company opened its tasting room doors — “The Woods” — to the public and featured 30 ciders from the cideries participating in the PNWCA festival.
The ciders were registered in 14 distinct categories, with gold, silver and bronze medal awarded in almost every category. Each judging panel was made up of 4 or 5 judges who tasted through 2 or 3 categories each. All judges then participated in a second tasting featuring the gold medals of each category to designate the “Best in Show” medal for the 2015 competition. This year’s winner was Wandering Aengus Ciderworks “Bloom,” a cidery based in Salem, Oregon. The complete results of the PNWCA can be found here.
