In pursuit of Prairie cider, I found myself in Winnipeg once again!
While I was in Winnipeg visiting a friend, I managed to sneak in a visit with some local cidermakers that I met on Instagram (you can follow them @winnipegciderlove)…
…record a podcast for Farm to Bottle, a podcast about Canadian brewing ingredient producers.
…and stop by Shrugging Doctor for a visit!
Shrugging Doctor: Winnipeg’s First Fruit Winery
Shrugging Doctor is the first fruit winery in Winnipeg! When I visited Winnipeg last summer, I tried Shrugging Doctor Apple Cider on tap during the Fringe, so it was fun to stop in for a chat with the co-founders, Willows Christopher and Zach Isaacs, this trip.
I very much appreciated talking with them about the obstacles they’ve faced as well as some of their major successes since they opened in January 2017. In their success, they struggle to keep up with demand. Willows wrote a great blog post that dives into that more and also gives some more interesting backstory to their development.
Shrugging Doctor Fruit Wine, Cider & Mead Tasting
Of course, no visit would be complete without sampling some products. I enjoyed a few samples and also grabbed a few bottles to bring home.
Apple Cider
This is a semi-sweet cider without carbonation that is made from B.C. apples.
Raspberry Wine
Rich and delicious, this tasty wine is the perfect balance between a fruit wine and table wine.
Raspberry Chocolate Premium Wine
The Raspberry Chocolate takes the Raspberry Wine and infuses it with a light chocolate flavour and aroma. I am not usually a fan of fruit and chocolate flavours together but I really enjoyed this. The chocolate gave a nice complexity to the flavour.
Apple Cinnamon Mead
From their website:
With a new and improved Mead recipe, we’ve perfectly blended the taste of fresh apples with sweet Manitoba Honey, aged in cinnamon to create this delicious product.
I was surprised by how much I liked this! I am usually not a fan of sweet meads, but this was a nice blend.
Cherry Wine Sangria
I brought a few bottles home to share, including this sangria. I am sucker for anything with sour cherries. The tartness of the sour cherry makes this a pre-packaged sangria that I can actually enjoy!
Delivery Liquor Service in Winnipeg
Shrugging Doctor is also unique in that they offer delivery service of their products! You can order online and receive the product within an hour, anywhere in Winnipeg!
I am very interested to see how Shrugging Doctor continues to build it’s brand and presence in the Manitoba – and Prairie – liquor scene.
Want More Cider Tourism Posts?
Read more about our travels on the Cider Tourism portion of our blog.
I bought a bottle of their cider recently and tried it today. I finished half of a glass and dumped the rest of the 750ml down the drain. It has undertones of Angry Orchard without the carbonation. I don’t drink Angry Orchard due to its overly sweet taste as well as odd undertones. The only thing making Angry Orchard bearable is the carbonation. Shrugging Doctor sadly has all of the bad and none of the good. Oh how I wish Canadian distributors would carry decent dry ciders made with good apples.
The struggle to find dry cider is REAL. Do you know our friends @winnipegciderlove (on instagram)? Maybe you can get in touch with them and work out a homebrew exchange to get some more dry cider selection. If you are ever in Edmonton, let us know and we will hook you up with some of ours 🙂