Brännland Iscider 2021

At extraction in February and March the weather was cold and the starting sugar levels through the roof. For a long time during fermentations we were sure that the 2021 would be our sweetest vintage to date seeing as a 3rd of the wines started at sugar levels hovering around 50 degrees brix.

However, tasting the finished wines and putting them together, the vintage revealed itself instead as the kind of light, elegant wine we started pursuing with the 2019 vintage.

Finally when the numbers came in from our lab we were given a near perfect 1:10 balance between residual sugar and acidity, a relationship we always strive towards but that we’ve only managed to capture in two previous vintages.

Another significant change for the 2021 is that as winemakers we moved to have the lions share of our fermentations occur with the natural yeast cultures present in our cellar. We’ve always had wild ferments but for this vintage we’ve started seriously pursuing them giving the vintage yet another dimension.

 – Andreas Sundgren, founder, Brännland Cider

2021 is the first vintage where I got the honor to be a part of the whole process from fruit to the finished wine,  The cold nights in early March gave us primary extractions with extreme sugar and acidity levels which meant that we were offered a fantastic set of wines this year to work with.

The sweetest wines form the foundation and the lighter ones sets the tone for the entire vintage to create a very elegant ice cider that I am proud to have been part of creating.

 – Joel Welander, Winemaker