The Finishing Touches
August 21, 2014
It’s hard to believe that after four years of plotting and planning, our new cidery is finally open to the public. It has been quite a thrill to see fans walk through the doors of the Cider House and have a space to sample cider while learning all there is to know about Woodchuck®.
It took 15 months to complete construction. One of the reasons why: most everything in the cidery was handcrafted. From the cider tanks to the bottling line to the cider house timber frames, everything was constructed with the utmost care and used the finest materials we could find. 45 different Vermont companies were contracted to help us build what we think is the finest cidery in the United States.
That spirit of quality and craftsmanship reached even the smaller parts of the project. Our roadside sign is one of the last things we have left to finish and we called in some Vermonters to help us. Mike Scott is the owner and operator of Restless Native, a local landscape design company. We wanted a stone wall as the base of our sign and he sure did deliver!
Each rock of the stone wall is hand cut and chiseled to make the perfect fit. The stone is known as Panton stone, as it is sourced from Panton, Vermont. The town is on the shores of Lake Champlain and thousands of years ago much of the rock was just sediment at the bottom of the lake. The water has long since receded, but the bedrock remains, as do fossilized plants and sea life.
It is a beautiful stone, and Mike spent the better part of a week chipping, stacking, and tweaking each piece until a balanced and level wall was in place. Mike might call it landscape design… we call it art.
So you think the craft would stop there, right? Think again. We used a company called Design Signs, out of Essex, VT, to complete the actual sign. The kicker? The craftsmen hand painted the logo!
Vermont is filled with these artisan businesses and they bring art into the everyday fabric of our communities. Bravo to both Mike and the team at Design Signs for crafting the art that will welcome all our visitors to the Woodchuck Cider House.
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