Published on January 14, 2009

Eleanor Leger slices a sample of the apples that she and her husband, Albert, use to make ice cider. The varieties include the Esopus Spitzenberg, directly to the right of Ms. Leger’s hands, an apple that is said to have been Thomas Jefferson’s favorite. The two apples closest to the camera are russets, with a rougher skin than what is usually found on a modern apple. Ms. Leger said the tannin found in the apple skin adds a distinctive character to the cider. Photos by Joseph Gresser

CHARLESTON — A tall slender bottle filled with an ambrosial amber liquid is taking its place on the top shelf as the latest entry in the Northeast Kingdom’s rapidly increasing stock of delicacies.  This past summer Albert and Eleanor Leger introduced Eden Ice Cider, an apple-based dessert wine, at farmers markets, stores, and restaurants throughout the state.

If there is a classic image of winemakers, the Legers probably don’t fit it.  She is a former marketing manager for a software company; he teaches chemistry at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.  Mr. Leger originally hails from New Brunswick, but a bare whisper of an accent reveals his Acadian heritage.

Asked how his forbearers escaped forced resettlement to Louisiana in 1755, Mr. Leger said, “We hid in the woods.”

Ms. Leger terms herself a “recovering flatlander,” but she can boast deep local roots.  Her maiden name was Ufford, one that can be found on local tombstones dating back to 1776, she said.  Her entrepreneurial spirit is also deeply rooted.  Ms. Leger said her great-grandfather opened a buggy factory in Barton when he returned from the Civil War.

The Legers are fast workers.  They found the site of their winery on Sanderson Hill Road here last year.  The old farm had a useful barn and a dilapidated house, which the couple replaced with a new building combining a home, a showplace for their products, and, in the basement, the production facilities.

The 100 cases of ice cider the Legers made last winter have dwindled to a precious few bottles, but production for next year is in full swing.  This

Albert Leger prepares to open a bottle of ice wine as his wife, Eleanor, looks on. The couple’s Charleston kitchen doubles as a showplace for their ice cider.

year the couple plans to increase the amount of their signature blended apple cider product to 5,000 bottles and to introduce a single variety version of the dessert wine that uses only northern spy apples.  In addition, they are working on an experimental batch of organic ice cider.

In late December the Legers welcomed a small group of visitors and gave them a grounding in how ice cider is produced.  The apple wine is a version of a beverage native to Germany and now a specialty of Quebec, ice wine.

Traditionally ice wine is made from grapes left on the vine to freeze during the cold weather.  When the grapes are pressed, the resulting juice is exceedingly sweet.  That is because liquids with a high sugar content freeze at a lower temperature than water.  The sweeter juice makes a distinctive, but very expensive, dessert wine.

Mr. Leger said that federal regulations require that an ice wine be made from naturally frozen fruit.  Some vintners actually search out apples clinging to trees long into winter to press for wine, but that is not a practical way to make larger quantities of apple wine.

Carboys of frozen cider made from northern spy apples wait to be brought indoors and thawed while Mr. Leger shows off his operation to visitors.

The Legers start with cider.  Last year they pressed all the apples themselves, but with this year’s increased production, they have had their apples pressed by a commercial cider mill.  The cider is delivered in containers that measure about four feet on a side.  They are pressing the northern spy apples for their single-apple cider themselves, though, and storing it in five gallon carboys, which they top off with nitrogen gas to keep the cider from oxidizing, which darkens the juice.

The cider is left outdoors to freeze and then brought indoors to thaw.  Again the process relies on the lower freezing point of a sugar syrup, but this time in reverse.  The portion of the cider with the highest sugar content thaws most quickly.

The Legers allow the cider containers to thaw, keeping close watch on the strength of the sugar solution.  As the cider melts they draw off the liquid until they have a solution that is about 34 percent sugar.  This is about 25 percent of the total capacity of the carboys, or tanks.  The other 75 percent tastes like watery cider, Mr. Leger said, and is taken back outside to be poured out when warm weather arrives.

The concentrated cider is put into fermenting tanks, which have their temperature controlled by means of a water jacket.  Yeast is added, and the cider is allowed to ferment for about six weeks until its alcohol content reaches about 10 percent.

Ms. Leger explained that because the sugar content of the finished product is so high, about 13 percent, they have to use a special yeast that is encapsulated into beads.  The Legers shake the beads to release the yeast during the fermenting period and remove them when the wine has the proper amount of alcohol.

At that point the wine is filtered and bottled.  Because dessert wines aren’t usually aged, the wine is then ready to drink.

Unlike some ice ciders, which are sweet and pleasant but lack subtlety, the Legers’ product has a complex balance of flavors that come from the

The Legers show off a few of the 11 varieties of apples they use to make their ice cider. While the blend is based on the familiar McIntosh, it also includes several antique varieties suggested to the couple by an apple grower in southern Vermont.

special blend of apples they use for their cider.

Ms. Leger explained that they worked with Zeke Goodband of Scott Farm in Dummerston, who she described as “a hermit curator of all kinds of antique apples,” to put together the blend of 11 varieties used in the cider.  These include such evocative names as black gilliflower, Orleans reinette, reine de reinette, Roxbury russet, blue pearmain, Cox orange pippen, and esopus Spitzenberg.  The base of the blend, though, is the familiar McIntosh.

The Legers now buy their apples from Scott Farm and Champlain Orchards in Shoreham, but they planted 400 apple trees last year and plan to add another 600 to their orchard this year.

Ms. Leger said the young trees are dwarf apples and should begin bearing fruit in three years or so.  They were grafted onto Russian rootstock to help them survive Northeast Kingdom winters.

The Legers sold their wine at the St. Johnsbury farmers market last summer.  They also took it around to restaurants and stores throughout the region.  “We want to have a personal relationship with buyers,” Ms. Leger explained.

A distinctive tall, thin bottle awaits the Legers’ guests, as they arrive for a late December tour of the couple’s winery.

She said 27 storekeepers and restaurateurs sampled their wine last year.  Only one turned them down, she said.

Mr. Leger recalled driving around the state and stopping at a restaurant, where they found Eden Ice Cider on the menu.  After a fine meal they ordered some to celebrate.

“It was expensive,” Mr. Leger said.