Swayzie Pomme Grise

For immediate release · Thorndale, Ontario · 17 August 2026

Heeman's Cellar gives a nearly forgotten Ontario apple a place in the present with Swayzie Pomme Grise cider

THORNDALE, ONTARIO — Heeman's Cellar is releasing Swayzie Pomme Grise, a limited single-varietal hard cider made entirely from a rare Ontario heritage apple with roots in the Niagara region.

The release is part of a larger commitment by Heeman's Cellar to celebrate Ontario-grown fruit and explore the stories held within the province's orchards. Rather than treating the Swayzie Pomme Grise as a relic of the past, the family-run producer has given the variety a new expression in cider.

Once valued for its aromatic fruit and distinctive cinnamon-russeted skin, Swayzie Pomme Grise was never an easy commercial apple. Its modest yields made it less appealing to large-scale growers, and over time it largely disappeared from the orchard landscape. Today, only a small number of mature trees remain.

Ontario has a rich apple-growing heritage as long and as storied as other old-world producing regions, and it's time our Ontario stories are told. Tom Heeman, Founder, Heeman's Cellar

Made with 100% Ontario-grown Swayzie Pomme Grise apples and freshly pressed juice, the cider is a dry, single-varietal expression of the fruit. It pours pale straw with fresh apple and subtle pear aromas, followed by balanced sweetness, bright acidity, and a crisp, lightly bitter finish.

The apple's russeted skin and naturally concentrated juice contribute texture and structure, while brief skin contact before pressing brings fine tannins to the finished cider. The result is layered and food-friendly, with enough freshness for summer drinking and enough depth to pair with richer dishes, including roast pork, aged cheeses, charcuterie, or salmon.

Swayzie Pomme Grise reflects the approach behind Heeman's Cellar, the craft beverage division of Heeman's, a third-generation family farm in Thorndale, Ontario. Known for growing fruit for more than six decades, Heeman's Cellar makes small-batch ciders and meads that place Ontario fruit, seasonality, and agricultural character at the centre of each release.

Availability

Swayzie Pomme Grise Hard Cider is a seasonal, small-batch release available in 500 mL bottles at 9% alc./vol. Suggested retail price is $15.95, including tax and bottle deposit. It is available at Heeman's farm market in Thorndale, through Heeman's Cellar, and online at heeman.ca/cellar.

About Heeman's Cellar

Heeman's Cellar is the craft cider and mead division of Heeman's, a third-generation family farm in Thorndale, Ontario. Using real fruit and locally grown ingredients, Heeman's Cellar produces small-batch beverages that reflect Ontario's orchards, seasons, and agricultural heritage.

Media contact — Abby Dellosa, abby@reneesferrazza.com, 416-871-9262. High-resolution imagery, logos and approved copy: heeman.ca/press/swayzie

Sample enquiries — marketing@heeman.ca · 519-461-1416 · heeman.ca/cellar

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For immediate release · Thorndale, Ontario · 17 August 2026

Heeman's Cellar releases Swayzie Pomme Grise, a dry single-varietal cider from a rare Ontario apple

THORNDALE, ONTARIO — Heeman's Cellar has released Swayzie Pomme Grise, a limited, dry single-varietal hard cider made from 100% Ontario-grown Swayzie Pomme Grise apples.

The small, cinnamon-russeted heritage apple has roots in Ontario's Niagara region and is known for its concentrated juice, aromatic character, and naturally expressive acidity. Heeman's Cellar works with the fruit as a single-varietal cider, allowing the apple's distinctive personality to lead the finished wine-like style.

Swayzie Pomme Grise pours pale straw with fresh apple and delicate pear aromas. The palate is crisp and clean, with gentle sweetness, moderate acidity, and a dry finish marked by a subtle bitterness. The cider is made with freshly pressed juice and is gluten-free.

A brief period of skin contact before pressing draws fine tannins from the apple's russeted skins, giving the cider added structure and texture. The fruit's naturally dense, high-sugar juice brings weight through the mid-palate, while bright acidity keeps the finish lifted and food-friendly.

This is a double vintage blend, one lot macerated on the pomace before pressing, the other aged sur lie through malolactic fermentation, for a smooth, structured mid-palate with orchard blossom on the nose and an aromatic, fruit-forward, medium-bodied style. Tom Heeman, Founder & Cidermaker, Heeman's Cellar

At 9% alc./vol., Swayzie Pomme Grise is suited to the table as much as it is to aperitif service. Serve chilled and pair with roast pork, porchetta, smoked duck, aged cheddar, Gouda, or salmon with herb butter.

The release also reflects Heeman's Cellar's ongoing interest in Ontario-grown fruit and heritage varieties. As the cider and mead division of Heeman's, a third-generation family farm in Thorndale, Ontario, the Cellar produces small-batch ciders that place fruit character and local agricultural history at the centre of the glass.

Availability

Swayzie Pomme Grise Hard Cider is a seasonal, small-batch release available in 500 mL bottles at 9% alc./vol. Suggested retail price is $15.95, including tax and bottle deposit. It is available at Heeman's farm market in Thorndale, through Heeman's Cellar, and online at heeman.ca/cellar.

About Heeman's Cellar

Heeman's Cellar is the craft cider and mead division of Heeman's, a third-generation family farm in Thorndale, Ontario. Using real fruit and locally grown ingredients, Heeman's Cellar produces small-batch beverages that reflect Ontario's orchards, seasons, and agricultural heritage.

Media contact — Abby Dellosa, abby@reneesferrazza.com, 416-871-9262. High-resolution imagery, logos and approved copy: heeman.ca/press/swayzie

Sample enquiries — marketing@heeman.ca · 519-461-1416 · heeman.ca/cellar

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Reference document · Updated 24 August 2026

Backgrounder: the Swayzie dossier

Context, sourcing and citable references for reporters covering heritage fruit, agricultural biodiversity or the Ontario cider category.

The historical anchor

Isaac Swayze (1751–1828) is the flamboyant figure in the story — a Loyalist spy, a survivor of patriot bayonets and an artillery commander in the War of 1812 — but it was his cousin, Israel Swayze, who actually propagated the apple. Isaac was the catalyst: he orchestrated the family's migration from New Jersey to the Niagara region and secured the Crown land grants that made the orchard possible.

The terroir and the orchard

The Swayzie variety originally sprang from the Carolinian soils of Thorold Township, near Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the Niagara Escarpment. The specific trees behind this cider grow well beyond that original ground, at Nighthawk Orchards in Ontario's Beaver Valley, harvested from majestic 80-year-old trees that benefit from the Great Lakes microclimate of the Georgian Bay region, which naturally enhances and concentrates their sugars.

In the cellar

Swayzie Pomme Grise presses into a viscous, high-brix must that provides a robust alcoholic backbone. The russeting on the skin is rich in polyphenols; a brief maceration — skin contact before pressing — extracts fine, supple tannins that give the cider a structural integrity often lacking in modern dessert varieties.

The pomological record, 1905

The Apples of New York, Vol. I, catalogues the variety as "Swazie", with Swayzie Pomme Grise listed as a recognised synonym. It describes the fruit as "small or sometimes nearly medium", oblate conical to roundish, with skin "rather pale yellow or greenish-yellow with some cinnamon-russet", and flesh "fine-grained, tender, crisp, juicy, highly aromatic, sprightly, rather mild subacid, pleasant, very good to best for dessert." Season: December to March.

The pomological record, 1906

The Fruits of Ontario, 1906 is blunter about why the variety disappeared: "There is no choicer winter dessert apple for the months of December and January… Unfortunately, it is not very productive, and, consequently, not profitable. One large tree at Maplehurst, seventy-five years planted, yielded only an average of four barrels each alternate year. It is well worthy of a place in the amateur collection." Origin is given as "probably with Col. Swayzie, near Niagara."

Primary sources & further reading

1. Beach, S. A., Booth, N. O., & Taylor, O. M. (1905). Swazie. The Apples of New York (Vol. 1, pp. 328–329). J. B. Lyon Company.
2. Woolverton, L. (1907). Swayzie. The Fruits of Ontario, 1906 (p. 73). Ontario Department of Agriculture.
3. Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe's dispatches, October 1812 — Isaac Swayze's command of the Provincial Royal Artillery Drivers and the transport of General Brock's body.
4. Merritt, W. H. Journal of Events Principally on the Detroit and Niagara Frontiers — contemporary account of the same campaign.
5. Upper Canada Land Petitions and The Book of Negroes (1783) — Swayze's migration as escort to a Black Loyalist named James Brown to Nova Scotia, and his subsequent Crown land grants in the Niagara and Thorold townships in 1784.
6. The Orange Pippin database — corroborating morphology, russeting and Pomme Gris parentage.

This backgrounder is provided for context and may be quoted as sourced material. Direct quotations from Heeman's Cellar should be drawn from the launch release or arranged through the media desk.

Trade notice · Thorndale, Ontario · 24 August 2026

Trade notice: Swayzie availability, allocation and on-premise pours

Swayzie Pomme Grise, 2025 vintage, is available in 500 mL bottles at $15.95 retail including tax and bottle deposit. The cider is hand-crafted seasonally in limited quantity from a single harvest: 1,400 bottles in total, roughly 116 cases, so allocation is finite and not repeatable within the vintage. As of this notice, approximately 700 bottles remain.

Through the summer season, Swayzie is sampled and served by the bottle at the Heeman's Dock on the farm — a useful on-site tasting opportunity for trade buyers, sommeliers and press visiting from London or Toronto.

Wholesale accounts order on a two-case minimum, at $12.95 per bottle. Distribution runs through two territory partners: Craft Dynamics covers Kitchener-Waterloo and points west, and T&T Local covers southwestern Ontario. Buyers outside either territory can reach out directly to beverage sales and will be connected with the appropriate distribution partner.

Trade & ordering contact — Beverage sales, Heeman's Cellar · beveragesales@heeman.ca · 519.461.1416

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