Vintage Virginia Apples

TALIAFERRO (Maybe) from The New American Orchardist (1841) by William Kendreick: "The fruit is the size of a grape shop, or from one to two inches in diameter; of a white color, streaked with red; with a sprightly acid, not good for the table, but apparently a very valuable cider fruit. This is understood to be a Virginia fruit, and the apple from which Mr. Jefferson's favorite cider was made." The Taliaferro ripens in late September in western Virginia. The tree drops its leaves early in the fall. The Taliaferro originated in Gloucester County, Virginia, before 1800. It is high on the list of fruits needed to restore Jefferson's orchard at Monticello. Jefferson said of it: "The most juicy apple I have ever eaten" and he described its cider as "with a taste more like wine than any liquor I have ever tasted which was not a wine." Believed to have become extinct, these trees are from a tree in Highland County whose apples resemble these descriptions. Whether the variety is the Taliaferro or no, it appears to have considerable promise as a cider variety.