Chris and Laura Denkers come from apple country in upstate New York. “Apples, orchards, and cider donuts have been in our blood since we were young,” Chris Denkers says. So in 2015, when they wondered what to do with the 37 acres they’d purchased in Mineral, Virginia, planting an orchard and making their own hard cider seemed like the natural choice.
Six years later, the orchard’s still growing, but the cider is already flowing. Coyote Hole Ciderworks is named in homage to the area’s mining past, after the small holes prospectors would dig. “We do all aspects of the cider-making in-house from fermentation, blending, and filtering to canning and kegging,” Denkers says.
With roughly 1.6 pounds of apples ending up in a single 16 oz. can, the orchards at Coyote Hole are still too young to meet the ciderworks’ ever-thirstier needs. So the Denkers source the majority of the apples in their ciders from other orchards in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Local farmers also help to supply peaches, pumpkins, and other ingredients for seasonal blends. According to Denkers, Coyote Hole even gets some of the pears it uses from wild trees growing in local homeowners’ yards.
In addition to its five flagship flavors available year-round, Coyote Hole offers numerous seasonal blends, including ciders aged with cold brew coffee, blended with other fruit juices, or spiced up with chai tea. Depending on the time of year, cider enthusiasts can enjoy dry pear cider, pumpkin cider, or cider brightened with pineapples or fresh peaches. But its most distinctive offerings may be its sangrias—a blend of cider, fruit juices, and wine.
“We started making our original sangria fresh in our tasting room as a special drink for our guests,” Denkers says. “It became so popular that we decided to can it up back in early 2018. Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own.”
Indeed, three of Coyote Hole’s year-round offerings are sangrias, including its top-selling Sister Sangria, which adds cabernet franc, cranberries, blackberries, and tangerines to Coyote Hole’s Oma Smith green apple cider. Sister Sangria and its sibling, Sunset Sangria, even took the silver and bronze medals in the 2020 U.S. Open Cider and Beverage Championship.
The sangrias rank among Coyote Hole’s most popular options, but Denkers says he’s particularly proud of “my personal favorite,” Bel-Hole, a single-variety Granny Smith hard cider aged in whiskey barrels, in collaboration with Culpeper’s Belmont Farm Distillery.
Coyote Hole even turned COVID-19 into an opportunity for creativity. When lockdowns limited access to their tasting room, the Denkers began holding livestreamed virtual cocktail hours on Facebook, devising new libations based on its ciders. As dining establishments and bars reopen, it’s now sharing those recipes with its restaurant partners, like Beer Run and The Market at Grelen.
With fall approaching, Coyote Hole’s preparing to revive a few fan-favorite flavors, including the pumpkin-enhanced Apparition and an apple pie cider—plus a few yet-to-be-announced flavors still in development.
Make it at home
The Sangria Temple
– 8 oz. (1/2 can) of Sister Sangria
– 2 oz. vodka
– 1 oz. grenadine
– 1/4 oz. lemon juice
– Orange zest
Combine and enjoy!