I’m Jarred Pearce and I’ve been a hard cider aficionado for a long time now. To tell you the truth, I was always a little skeptical on drinking these bizarrely “flavored”, sugar laden hard ciders we have grown accustomed to finding around here. I love ciders that are more authentic and traditional. Ciders that are real and pay respect to cider making’s long tradition. Problem is, these ciders have always been really hard to find in the US.

My interest and search for real cider really grew into a passion in early 2017. I wanted to craft real traditional cider and make it available to everyone in the US. That’s how the dream of a new hard cider brand was born.

For over a decade now, I have been making wine in the Napa Valley. It was natural for me to use my skills in winemaking to recognize and evaluate the necessary steps to produce high quality, complex ciders. I knew the style of cider I wanted to produce, one that comes from sustainable orchards, a cider that is authentic and inspired by tradition.

Just like with wine, my philosophy for cider is that quality must start in the orchard. I discovered that only a small acreage of cider specific apple varieties are grown in the US, and none are available to purchase. This meant the only available apples for cider were varieties meant to be eaten. I know one thing for sure... I would never make wine from table grapes, so why would I make cider from culinary apples.

I began collecting ciders from all over the world, hoping they would lead me to the best cider apples. After hundreds of tastings and enthusiastic research, all roads led to Spain. Specifically, the acclaimed cider producing region of Asturias, which is known as Costa Verde.

I needed to find out first hand if this was really the holy grail of real cider! So, in the spring of 2018, my wife Ruby and I traveled to Costa Verde. We toured numerous cider houses, tasted dozens of ciders, evaluated many different apple varieties, fly fished in the mountain streams and hiked around the beautiful Asturias countryside. Most importantly we found what we were looking for: The world’s best cider apples!

We didn’t lose any time and while we were still in Spain, we were able to procure some extraordinary apples as well as retain a facility where production for Costa Verde Cider Company would take place. We work exclusively with a handful of small family orchards, some of which have been growing apples and producing cider for more than four generations, maintaining their traditional cider making culture and way of life. Finding the best apples was and is always my highest priority. I work hard to make cider that’s minimally manipulated on its journey from orchard to can.

We are proud of our first cider vintage produced in the fall of 2019. After a two month fermentation and 6 months of aging in Chestnut barrels, we are excited to release our ciders to the US market during the summer of 2020.