liquid assets
Oliver’s Fun Cide(r) Winery’s hard cider catches the eye and pleases the tongue BY KEITH ROACH
V
isit the Oliver Winery tasting room north of Bloomington and you’ll see countless bottles of wine. There’s the Soft Red, the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Shiraz.
Then, in one corner, you’ll see a decidedly different drink. You can tell it’s different by the colorful, cartoony packaging of its five flavors. On one, a woman defends her blueberry patch from beasts using a skillet named Sal.
This is the winery’s new Beanblossom Hard Cider. An instant hit when it debuted in summer 2011, it’s poised to be many Hoosiers’ preferred potable this fall, thanks to Oliver Winery’s serious attention to fruit flavors and the addition of a less common ingredient: fun. “Breweries always have more fun than wineries,” says Bill Oliver, president and director of winemaking for the winery, the state’s oldest and largest. Now it’s the winery’s turn.
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edible indy
A LIGHTHEARTED APPROACH Oliver’s ciders come in five flavors: original apple, strawberry, raspberry, peach and blueberry—echoing the fruity notes that are often found in its wine. But in packaging the cider, the winery went a new route: single servings. There are the hefty 500-milliliter aluminum bottles ($4 each) and the handy 250-milliliter cans, wich are sold in packs of four ($8) and individually ($2). The cider—which is technically an apple wine because of its alcohol content—has caught on quickly since its release last summer. Its equally colorful, shed-shaped display cases have popped up seemingly everywhere, throughout Indiana and beyond. It is sold in 22 states, from Florida to North Dakota. In Indiana, it is sold at independent groceries and liquor stores, some restaurants and bars, and chains like Marsh, Target, Sam’s Club and Walmart. There’s also oliverwinery.com, the winery’s tasting room on State Road 37 and, as of this fall, a new tasting room in downtown Bloomington.
Fall 2012
