The Cascade Locks cidery Son of Man will release its first batch at a party Feb. 23. (Michael Alberty)

Son of Man is the first cidery in the Pacific Northwest to specialize in Basque-style cider, and its first batch will be released at an open house in late February. After one sip all I can ask is, "What took so long?"

The typical hard apple cider on America’s store shelves is fruity, slightly sweet and made with many of the same techniques commercial breweries use to make beer. These ciders are made year-round with apples preserved in refrigerators or concentrates that are rehydrated and fermented when needed. Commercial yeasts are used to trigger their fermentation, after which natural sweeteners are added. Carbon dioxide is typically injected into the fermented apple juice to add the bubbles.

“The modern style of cider isn’t my cup of tea, but I appreciate big producers like Angry Orchard for blazing a trail and exposing more Americans to cider,” Son of Man’s owner, Jasper Smith, says.

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Jasper Smith, Son of Man owner, at the Cascade Locks cidery. (Michael Alberty)

Son of Man’s cider is the complete opposite of brands like Woodchuck or Strongbow: It is achingly dry, high-acid apple cider that tastes like a cross between an earthy white wine and a Northwest-style sour beer.

Standing beneath a giant mural of Basajuan, the mythical Basque “wild man” who appears on Son of Man’s labels, Smith explains how his rustic Basque-style cider is made more like a wine than beer.

“To make good cider or wine, the quality of the fruit is paramount. I use over two dozen varieties of heirloom apples from the Willamette Valley and Hood River that are grown specifically for cider,” Smith says. Like wineries, Smith picks fruit once in the fall, giving him just one shot at the vintage.

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Inside the Son of Man cidery. (Michael Alberty)

The fresh-picked apples are rinsed with water and ground into chunks that are pressed to collect their juice. The juice is then placed in tanks where wild yeasts from the air and on the apple skins trigger spontaneous fermentation. Except for the use of a mobile juice trailer, Smith’s minimalist approach is how Basques have been making cider in northern Spain for over 2,000 years.

Smith did not grow up planning to become a ciderista. The former soccer star at Portland’s Lincoln High School was working in the catering business in San Francisco when he shared a cider epiphany with his wife, Ella McCallion.

“We were eating at a little bakery called Marla when the server suggested a Basque cider. We loved it. By the end of the night we decided we should make something just like it back home in Oregon,” Smith said.

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"Sagardo" is the Basque word for cider.

The next step was a fact-finding mission to northern Spain. Smith traversed Basque country tasting ciders and gathering advice from local producers. Two cidermakers, Guillermo Castaños and Guillermo Monteil, agreed to work with Smith to make a cider using fruit from Monteil’s orchard. That cider was bottled under the Son of Man label and shipped to Portland, where Smith sold it to a few bottle shops and wine bars in the area. Castaños continues to work with Smith as a consultant.

In addition to learning how to make cider, Smith fell in love with the Basque food, culture and traditions surrounding the making and drinking of sagardo, which is the Basque word for cider. He hopes to share those traditions with his fellow Oregonians at a celebration planned for late February. Basques call this type of celebration “txotx” (pronounced “CHO-ch”), the word shouted when a new barrel of cider is tapped.

If you attend the celebration, you will be given a glass and asked to join the conga line. There you will make many new friends as you approach the cider tank. When it is your turn, hold your glass at an angle approximately two feet from the spigot to catch your cider. This is known as the “long pour.”

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The view of the Columbia River Gorge from the Son of Man cidery in Cascade Locks. (Michael Alberty)

The long pour aerates the cider, unlocking the aromatics and activating its natural carbonation. It is also great fun. After a few sticky trips through the conga line, spontaneous eruptions of singing are quite likely.

Sagardo is a very food-friendly beverage, and platters of fire-grilled dry-aged ribeye steaks – a classic Basque pairing – will be available for purchase. Bottles of Son of Man Sagardo (750 ml.) will be available to take home for $15 a bottle or $162 for a case of 12.

Son of Man Txotx Release Party

When: 6-10 p.m. Feb. 23.

Where: Son of Man, 160 N.E. Herman Creek Lane, Cascade Locks.

Tickets: $15 in advance (Eventbrite.com), $20 at the door, sonofman.co or hello@sonofman.co.

Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.

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