VERGENNES — Shacksbury Cider will mark the formal opening of its Vergennes cidery and tasting room on Saturday, Oct. 28. The public is invited to come see what the hard cider maker has set up in the Kennedy Brothers Building at 11 Main St.
The event will include hard and sweet cider from Shacksbury, as well as beer from Hired Hand Brewing Co. in Vergennes, food from the Almost Home food truck, and music from The Balladeer & The Bluesman. Festivities will also feature apple pressing and lawn games, as well as an outdoor fire pit. Halloween costumes are welcome.
“We’re thrilled to call Vergennes home, and look forward to celebrating with our new neighbors,” said Shacksbury co-founder David Dolginow.
Nell Newman, of the Nell Newman Foundation, will cut the ribbon at the grand opening. The daughter of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Nell Newman is a philanthropist and proponent of organic and sustainable agriculture.
The celebration officially marks Shacksbury’s move to Vergennes, where the cidery now occupies an early 1900s creamery; at the turn of the century, farmers gathered here to send their milk by rail to market. The cider joins a growing collection of businesses now located in the revitalized Kennedy Brothers complex, rehabilitated in recent years by Lillian Kennedy and Bob Feuerstein.
Founded in 2013 by Colin Davis and Dolginow, Shacksbury brewed its first ciders in Davis’s Shoreham barn before moving much of its production to Vermont Refrigerated Storage in Shoreham. The cidery will continue to use VRS space for production and warehousing.
In the four years since, Shacksbury has grown to include nine employees, and Shacksbury’s award-winning ciders are now distributed in 28 states. Shacksbury makes its ciders from a blend of wild-foraged apples collected throughout the Champlain Valley, as well as cultivated fruit from their orchard partner Sunrise Orchards. The cidery also collaborates with orchard partners in England and Spain, selling cider made from their apples.