Guelph, Ontario
Revel Cider was born out of a love affair with natural fermentation that Tariq Ahmed discovered during a summer internship living on an organic vegetable farm. During his downtime on the farm he played around in the outdoor kitchen and experimented with their old basket press, making naturally fermented pickles, mulberry wine, and in the fall came cider.
Through his own enthusiastic naiveté, the story of Revel Cider began. Falling for characterful native yeast fermentations, there were no rules to abide by – instead, allowing everything to ferment with the organisms indigenous to the fruit and the cidery, impressing a sense of time and place on each harvest.
The fermentations have always been oxidative, more out of necessity than anything else. They couldn’t afford stainless steel at the beginning, so they started with plastic and oak vessels. Learning to guide native yeast and bacteria with exclusively oxidative equipment has been an absorbing journey. Currently, they age the ciders and wines on tannic apple pomace and grape marc, protecting them from oxygen while infusing texture and salinity.
By allowing the microorganisms to breathe in their youth, and to slowly digest plant material as they age, a vibrant expression of life emerges.
These ferments are bursting with life and vitality. They are true expressions of the fermented fruit, herbs, flowers, and their skins used in each cvuveé. The availability will be forever changing. When you order – it’s direct. When we have enough for a full pallet – we will send you the cider.
updated – December 15, 2022
~TIME & PLACE~
A Farmhouse Cider. Time and Place is the purest expression of the native yeasts from Revel. It’s bright and tart, a blend of apple and wild yeast activity. Long aging on crabapple pomace coaxes out quiet tannins and ripe orchard aromatics. Restrained yet elegant, this is the cider Tariq always wanted to make. 6%.
Time & PLace 24 x 355ml | SKU #388725 |$3.79 | AvailabLE
~MITHRAS~
Mithras is a cider made with an extravagant amount of Niagara-grown nectarines. Foraged sassafras branches for a soft sweetness, it’s a background character which lifts the fruit. Mithras has loads of nectarine aroma up front, with bright and lively stone fruit acidity. It’s dry and tart, with the Sassafras sweetness lifting the nectarines just enough to push it into the ‘fabulous’.
MITHRAS 24 x 355ml | SKU #499985 |$4.76 | Available
~CHERRY SONATA~
Tart Montmorency cherries at their finest. Whole cherries were added to the cider and left to macerate for five months. After this, the cider is like sipping on cherry blaster candies (without the sweetness), with grippy tannins and nuances of sweet almond and apple interwoven with funky aromatics of native microflora. 6%
CHERRY SONATA 24 x 355ml | SKU #474186 |$4.76 | AvailablE
~SOIF~
To make Soif, Revel blended two spontaneously fermented ciders aged on cherries and strawberries and added almost one tonne of Zweigelt skins for an extra month of skin contact. Zweigelt and Montmorency Cherries meld into plush textural bliss. Strawberry aromas waft over it all. The fruit acids here are bright and lively.
SOIF | 12 x 750ml | SKU #474382 |$15.30| Available
~WAVES~
Waves is a cider with red + blue plums, blended with a young Montmorency cherry cider. Each fruit has built on top of each other to create something wildly crushable. Waves starts with chamomile and sweet plum in the aroma. The flavour is easy, with a touch of acid and a gentle salinity. Spiced Montmorency cherries fill out the soft, floral nature of the plums. A whisper of plum skin tannin gives this rosé-adjacent blend just the right amount of texture.
WAVES| 12 x 750ml | SKU #403086 | $13.81 | AvailaBle
~SPRING~
Spring is a blend of 3 different ciders, aged on 3 different plums for about 7 months. Blue plums, Red plums, and Golden plums, all grown in Niagara. Spring also surprisingly smells like strawberry cotton candy, without being sweet. No pasteurized purée here, just real fruit. The flavour is tart art — crunchy acidity meets plum stone tannins and a chewy-ness that feels adjacent to our favourite Provençal rosés. Wild fermented, zero residual sugar, vegan friendly.
Spring| 12 x 750ml | SKU #direct |$20.70 | AvailaBle
~LUMINAL~
Liminal is a one-of-a-kind creation by Grape Witches and Revel, the best combination of Ontario fruit and Italian clay. Made from Golden Russet, Sauvignon Blanc, Bartlett Pears and Maréchal Foch, Liminal sits at the sensory threshold of wine and cider: a merging of worlds.A rare liquids where the final bottling is even better than our test blend. The tannins of the russet skins meld into the salinity of the clay. Tropical Sauvignon Blanc elevates the blueberry-like Foch. Pears trust-fall into everything, making it impossible to pull one fruit from another. Wild, experimental and so, so delicious – You’re going to want to pour it for your best friends and complete strangers too. 8.8% ABV.
LUMINAL| 12 x 750ml | SKU #319085 | $16.75 | AVAILABLE
~PLEASED TO MEET YOU ~
A sweet rosé vermouth.
Starting with a base of Muscat, cherries and Sauvignon Blanc and Zweigelt, we added chamomile, wormwood, ocean rose, and tarragon. Chamomile and Sauvignon Blanc are the stars of the aroma, but they quickly transition to grapefruit rind (courtesy of the Muscat) and subtle cherry. Muscat and wormwood together create a grapefruit-like pithiness that we can’t get enough of. It’s bittersweet in flavour: like honey and grapefruit juice garnished with tarragon, maraschino cherries and summer flowers.
We love this vermouth poured over a big ice cube, but it definitely works in cocktails too. 16.8%