Strolling about the diminutive orchard, Mulligan sweeps his arm across a portion of the fields in our view. “So, we took a 10-year lease on this property four years ago,” he explains. “We have eight acres here, and that will double in the next two years.”

What’s fascinating is that Bull Run is mining not just Europe’s apple tradition, but one in America that was just on the brink of extinction. Bull Run’s connection to the Home Orchard Society put them in contact with orchardists who were maintaining rare and in some cases forgotten species of apples. “The Society has a lot of access to private orchards where, [for example], this guy is a retired engineer and he’s growing 15 different types of cider apples,” Mulligan says. “Nick Botner in Yoncalla, Oregon grows the world’s largest private collection of apples—4,000 varieties. He’s 88 years old.”

(Botner’s collection is renowned and, for the apple nerds, a rabbithole worth diving into.)