The Essex Experience is already a bustling beverage destination with a brewery, a distillery and a wine bar (see "Minding the Stores"). Soon the former outlet mall will add a cidery.
Chris Line and Karen Wisehart will open Vermont Cider Lab in Suite 214 — between Magic Mann and the Mad Taco — in late spring. The business is named for the couple's yellow Lab, Kurri, who is pictured in the logo.
The cidery will feature a 50-seat tasting room with a viewing window into its on-site production space, which will produce roughly 4,500 gallons over its first year. The tasting room will offer five hard ciders on tap, all made with juice from local orchards, including a honey-lemon-ginger cider, a cranberry cider and a classic cider. Additional flavors will rotate seasonally. Cider cocktails — including hot toddies and slushies — and beer and wine options will be served.
Line has been making five-gallon batches of cider in his basement for nearly 14 years. Over that time, he's received feedback and advice from local cider pros, including the team at Citizen Cider, David Farrell of Farrell Distributing and Mark Ray of Stowe Cider. Former Eden Specialty Ciders head cidermaker Garrett Huber is consulting as Vermont Cider Lab scales up from home production to 250-gallon batches in the new space.
Wisehart — who will continue to work full time as general manager of South Burlington's Best Western Plus Windjammer Inn & Conference Center — is spearheading a menu of small plates to pair with the ciders, including savory pies from Brent Harrewyn's the Wise Pie. Gluten-free options will also be available.
"And we're totally tapping into the cider doughnut market," Wisehart said.
While Line uses local honey or maple syrup to aid the fermentation process, "I don't like to produce supersweet ciders," he said.
Each season's apples dictate the final product. "Cider is wine, right?" Line suggested. "I'm not looking to make a Bud Light, where it's the same thing all the time."