The first in the Tractor Orchard Series is Nichols Wine Sap Cider, an apple cider blend of Winesap and Fuji apples. The apples were harvested fresh from Nichols Ranch and Orchard. The Nichols family has been farming and ranching in Otero County since 1882. Nestled in the Sacramento Mountains near La Luz, NM, the family-operated farm and ranch overlooks the Tularosa Basin and White Sands National Monument. Since 1941, the family has provided fresh fruit and beef to the local area by maintaining a 22-acre orchard consisting of 1200 apple trees, 800 cherry trees, and several hundred other fruit trees. The farm is open for public picking every year June through October.
With a classic red and raw apple flavor and crisp tartness, this cider speaks to its roots in the Sacramento Mountains. The Winesap’s offer a sharp wine-like aroma while the Fuji’s give it that crisp apple note. A golden yellow with a frothy white head that touches the New Mexican sky, you can taste the organic naked nature bore from the soil right here in our home state.