Cranberries

Wines they are in: Cranberry Cider, Rosé

Ginger

We have considered using this ingredient in our wines, however, as of yet we have not found the right place for it.

Black Raspberries

Originally from my backyard for experimental batches before we were a commercial winery, then we went out to organic growers in Washington state.  For the past few years, local NH farm Autumn View has provided excellent berries after planting the vines for us!  Crop yield should increase every year for a few more years.

Wines they are in: Red Scare, Black Raspberry Mead, Melange

Strawberry

Have had a few sources over the years, and have even gone out for Calif organic strawberries, but now have a great local NH source of Hemingway Farms.

Wines they are in: Strawberry Rhubarb, Cirque de Strawberry, and Deep Berry

Coriander

We have considered using this ingredient in our wines, however, as of yet we have not found the right place for it.

Dolgo Crabapples

In Ken’s own words: I was heading over for a mountain bike ride at Bob’s house one late August day in 2008.  Beside Bob’s driveway is a decorative tree: blossoms in the spring and these little red apples in the late summer. Since I’d recently learned you can make wine out of just about anything growing around us, and that the best wines are from the best tasting fruit, I had to taste one of these apples. WOW! My taste buds were blasted by fantastic apple flavors in a super tart and tangy shock followed by such grippy tannins my cheeks got sucked in to my teeth! Such intense tannins are one of the key aspects of what makes cabernet such a nice wine, so perhaps we could make a nice wine out of these little apples. After our ride, I did a little research and decided to make an unconventional apple wine by chopping up the little apples and adding them to some water and sugar – building a grape.  Most apple wines are made from the juice squeezed from the apples, but I knew that would be too intense. I also knew that the great complexity and richness of red wines comes from using the whole grape and letting the yeast pull all the goodies out of the fruit: magic!

Wines they are in: All of our Ciders.

Honey Berries

Ben Shambaugh – Owner/manager – of Wayside Farm, reached out to us about eight years ago to gauge our interest in his new crop, honey berries. This fruit originated in northern Siberia, northern China, and northern Japan, and Ben found that they also grew exceptionally well in our region. It took only one taste before Ken knew he would make wine from this beautiful fruit. Since then, Ken has purchased all the fruit Ben can provide us and used the berries in numbers wine and wine styles. 

Wines they are in: Northern Berry Red

Kiwi Berries

Kiwi berries are a distant cousin to the tropical kiwis most of us are familiar with. They grow in extremely cold climates making them an idea crop for northern New England. Ken’s good friend Greg Meeh is an organic gardener in Canterbury and the owner of Cold Garden Spirits. Back in 2009 or 10, Greg introduced Ken to his crop of kiwi berries that were growing in abundance on his property, so much so that he needed to find a home for all the fruit that year. Ken gladly accepted the generous gift of kiwi berry fruit and began experimenting with using them in wine production. We soon needed to find a more extensive source for our kiwis to satisfy Ken’s growing interest in this fruit in our wine production. This was when we discovered Kiwi Dave, the country’s largest organic grower of kiwi berries, in Pennsylvania. Since then, we discovered that UNH has been studying kiwi berries for nearly ten years here in NH. We now use kiwi berries in several of our wines as a blender. 

Wines they are in: Passion Popper, Meredith Bay White, Winni White

Black Currants

Wines they are in: Hermitage

Apples

Apples are abundant across New England, and people have been using apples to make cider and wine for centuries. Given the abundance of apples in our area and the wide variety of available types, apples were among the first local fruits we began experimenting with. Initially, we sought apples on our own property, where they were growing wild, and from all our friends’ and families’ trees. We made our first commercial apple wine from apples grown at Cardigan Mt Orchard in Alexandria, NH. We now get the lion’s share of all our apples from Apple Hill Farm in Concord. 

Wines they are in: All of our Ciders, Heirloom Crabapple Wine, Rosé, Crabapple Cyser, Melange Blanc, Melange

Elderberries

Elderberries are one of the healthiest and most abundant fruits growing in the wilds of NH. From the very beginning of Hermit Woods, Ken would map our the locations of all the wild elderberry trees he could find, and we would harvest all the fruit we could to produce elderberry wine and use it as a blender in other wines. As production increased, we needed to seek out farmers growing and harvesting elderberries, a task that has proved difficult. Elderberries are a challenging fruit to harvest. One of our earliest and best suppliers learned what great wine elderberries produce and stopped selling them to us so they could make their own wine. Eventually, we had to go outside of NE to find a source for the quantity of Elderberries we required. Fortunately, we found a small organic grower in Arkansas. Not only did this grower grow some of the best elderberries we have ever had, but they also agreed to deliver the fruit to us every year personally. 

Wines they are in: Elderberry Wine, Lake House Red, Hermitage

Day Lily Flowers

Wines they are in: Flower Power

Cardamom

We have considered using this ingredient in our wines, however, as of yet we have not found the right place for it.

Knotweed

We produced a few batches of wine made from knotweed early on. Knotweed is considered food in Asia. The young stalks are the edible portion of the plant and similar to Rhubarb. However, in the United States. the FDA will not approve production of Knot Wine as it is not deemed a food. Therefore, we never sold it commercially. I have seen at least one example of a local restaurant producing a knotweed pie for commercial sale in NH.

We now produce a Knot Wine crafted from honey that is entirely derived from the flower of the Knotweed plant. This honey is some of the best-tasting honey I have ever had. Unfortunately, we don’t make this wine often as it is not easy to find a regular supply of Knotweed Honey in the quantities we require. 

Wines they are in: Knot Wine, hidden away in our private cellars

Green Tomato

We have considered using this ingredient in our wines, however, as of yet we have not found the right place for it.

Black Pepper

We have considered using this ingredient in our wines, however, as of yet we have not found the right place for it.

Autumn Berries

Ken discovered autumn berries from a small local farmer in Sanbornton. He found that fermenting them produced excellent natural tannic characteristics that, when used in small quantities, added just the right amount of soft tannic finish we were looking for in our wines that otherwise lacked the tannins we desired. We have since found other ways of achieving the right tannic balance and no longer use autumn berries in our wine. However, they were an important part of Ken’s early wine-making. 

Wines they are in: none currently

Rhubarb

Wines they are in: Lakehouse White, Winni White, MBW, Spring in Session