Farm to table, orchard to glass

By Seth Dolinksy —

Sonoma Valley has long been known as a source of high quality food. This fact was enshrined when Alice Waters chose Cannard farms as a supplier for her then nascent farm to table restaurant concept in Berkeley, at Chez Panisse. 

Long before that, the Valley put forth an abundance of quality cheese and dairy, orchard crops such as walnuts and stone fruit, and of course, premium wines. Many of the finest restaurants in Sonoma and beyond tout their use of local produce, meats, dairy, and beverages on their menus, and some groceries have featured locally-sourced food and drink.  

These days, it’s much easier for small local farms to provide consumers with great high-quality dairy products with the help of dairy processing equipment like batch mixers, pasteurizers, a cream separator machine or butter churn.

It is against this backdrop that Mike Zakowski (Mike the Bejkr, in Sonoma parlance) has thrived. Known for his breads, pizzas, and huge array of baked goods, Mike branched out his culinary reach some years back in a partnership with Tony Coturri, legendary natural winemaker, in the production of a local cider. I sat down with Mike over a glass of this medal-winning cider to discuss good food and drink.

Seth Dolinsky: Mike, how did this partnership come about between you and Tony?

Mike Zakowski: Back in 2014, I was training for the masters de la boulangerie, an international baking competition, in Paris, and was developing a cider bread. I am a big fan of natural and organic wines, Coturri’s focus, and approached Tony about the concept and it went from there.”

SD: Did you have a roadmap for what you wanted to do?

MZ: We wanted to make a natural cider, in a similar fashion as Tony does his naturally fermented wines – no yeast, no sulpher, just juice. To find the best juice we talked to Paul Kolling, famous West County apple farmer (and husband of the famous sandwich shop, the Farmer’s Wife). He sourced Gravenstein apples from Sebastapol and we made our first vintage.

SD: I remember that, the clear glass jug

MZ:  Yeah we started out with custom bottles, hemp paper labels and other things that we  changed to reduce costs over time. We changed to a standard sized 750ml bottle, and the recipe varied as we worked on the fermentation and natural carbonation, but kept the same simple ingredients –100% Gravenstein apples, thus the name, Aeplz.”

SD: The label refers to the production as being Petillant Naturel, is this fancy talk for natural wine?

MZ: Not exactly, it is an old process, known as the methode ancestrale in France, of bottling the cider while it is still fermenting to trap carbon dioxide, creating natural carbonation.

SD: How does it feel to win the category in this event, it looked like there was some good competition!

MZ: It’s good to be recognized for what you do, for making something that stays true to the essence of the ingredients, and to the history and culture of the process. It’s the same with my baking, you start with the best ingredients, always organic, and local if possible, and you have a strong foundation to work from.

SD: Where can people find a bottle of Aeplz?

MZ: Tony has it marketed under the Coturri label found at various wine shops. The Aeplz label is only available from me.

SD: Well we know where to find you, Friday Farmers Market!

MZ: Yep, see you there.

Seth Dolinsky is manager of the Sonoma Valley Agricultural Cooperative, a program of the Sonoma Springs Community Hall aimed at supporting local farms and food producers using organic methods and ingredients, and is owner of New Land Systems, a regenerative land management company.