Andrew Byers trained as a culinary botanist and has many years of experience in kitchens and orchards. As head cidermaker at Finnriver Farm and Cidery in Chimacum, WA for the last 10 years he has focused on a network of small scale, organic sources of fruit and botanicals in the PNW. He also currently serves on the board of the Northwest Cider Association.

Ashley Wilson stumbled upon the cider industry in 2021, but soon fell in love. She started off as a production associate at Locust Cider in Gig Harbor, WA where her mentors nurtured her interest into passion. She has since traveled to Roseland, VA to broaden her experience as Head Cidermaker at Bryant’s Cider. Ashley takes special interest experimenting with botanical and creating unique small batch ciders. She looks forward to furthering her craft and sharing the love of cider by joining the team at Schilling Cider in Auburn, WA.

Ashley chose to take the Certified Pommelier exam to further her education. She aspires to become an industry expert to help spark intrigue and provide guidance so others may also find pleasure in cider.

Jessica is a former cider slinger and overly-educated enthusiast with a graphic design habit. She resides in the Pacific Northwest and loves supporting all her wonderful cider friends making great local products.

Jessica chose to pursue a Pommelier™ certification for the challenge, to improve her knowledge and palate, and to build her community.

Find out what she’s tasting on Instagram @jessicashortcake.

Walker Smith and his wife are slowing growing Goldeneye Cider, currently a cidery-in-planning. They are located in Whatcom County, Washington, just south of the Canadian border and west of the Cascade Mountains. It’s important for them to maintain and enhance the connection between sustainable agriculture and cider while also protecting and utilizing the wild spaces. What that in mind, they collect from unmanaged trees and co-ferment with native fruits to produce a line of ciders that showcase the local flavors of Whatcom County.

Walker decided to take the Certified Pommelier™ exam to test his knowledge, train his palate, connect with other passionate cider professionals and continue learning how best to connect sustainable agriculture, local food systems and habitat restoration.

Cam Workman has worked both on-premise and off-premise wine in bars and wine retail, as a production and packaging lead at a fancy Midwest jam and cocktail syrup company, in a variety of food service positions, a coffee roaster, and poured freelance wine tastings for public and private events. Cam thinks he’s finally found a path he wants to focus on: making cider. He’s also found a home in Seattle, where he works at Schilling Cider as the manager of their Quality Assurance team. He spends his days solving interesting puzzles, coming up with new ideas, working with fantastic people, and using magic to build some radical spreadsheets that support their awesome team. He’s always thought he’d be working in wine, but the exact moment he discovered cider he realized that he’d stumbled into something amazing that he knew he wanted to be a part of. He can’t wait to spend the next years of his life getting to know everyone and learning as much as he can!

He chose to become a Certified Pommelier™ because he’s hoping to use what he’s learned in his time as a cidermaker to help guide and grow the industry! The Pommelier certification seemed like a way to help give him a little extra sparkle.

Y. Dave Klawer is a cidermaker, orchardist, cider advocate, educator and enthusiast. He is completing a Masters Degree in Agriculture with hopes to grow the best possible cider fruit. He and his wife have several thousand young trees and look to supply cidermakers within the region with highest quality cider fruit and fresh pressed juice.

He and his wife Heather Klawer are Co-Owners and Co-founders of Bitters & Sharps LLC. They are a wholesale nursery and orchard management company specializing in cider fruit production, custom grafting, orchard design, orchard planning, and consultation services.

They also have a small cider company called Alma Cider. They are located in Northwestern Washington, where the mountains meet the sea, in the beautiful Skagit Valley. 

Dave chose to become a Certified Pommelier™ in the pursuit of becoming an expert in as many aspects of cider as possible, so that he can learn to make the best possible cider and perry products. He also wanted to be able to help standardize the language in which cider is described, so that nationally there is more consistency with verbiage. Ultimately, he believes these universal adaptations will benefit the cider industry as a whole, as well as consumers who can be guided towards the cider that best fits their palate, occasion, mood, or food pairing. Lastly, he really, really likes cider.

Storie Madrid is a longtime cider enthusiast from Seattle, WA. She and her spouse, Erik, are are the owners of Press Then Press, a cider focused webstore that ships cider across the US. They are also in the planning stages for a cider focused taproom in the Seattle area. She decided to pursue becoming a Certified Pommelier™ to test and expand her knowledge of cider and to practice objectively tasting and describing cider so that she can help turn more people into cider drinkers

Nick Hill is the founder, co-owner & head cidermaker at Puget Sound Cider Company. When he first started crafting cider he did a lot of research on how cider was made. It was at this time he discovered the lost history of cider in this country. It was like he found a treasure trove! He was especially fascinated with traditional American cider apples and their origins. Since then he has had great success using traditional cider apples in their ciders and helping people discover just how good American cider can be.

Nick chose to become a Certified Pommelier™ to expand his knowledge and understanding of today’s rapidly evolving dynamic cider industry as a whole. Now he has more confidence representing his company, his region and promoting cider as a high quality, high value beverage.

Kate Pinsley began her cider journey with a pint of Original Sin served in a sketchy bar in the East Village. Her next stop was the Finger Lakes with its bounty of upstate cideries. In the course of completing her master’s thesis on apple tannins at Cornell University, Kate learned cidermaking and became quite the cider nerd. Kate is now the Senior Director of Beverage at Schilling Cider in Seattle, leading the cider production and R&D teams in their mission to create quality canned cider. Kate decided to pursue her Pommelier™ certification to challenge her cider knowledge and palate, and to connect with more cidermakers and cider fans.

Erik Madrid is a cider enthusiast and hobbyist cidermaker from Seattle, WA. He and his wife Storie (also recently certified) are the owners of Press Then Press, a cider focused webstore that ships cider across the US. They are also in the planning stages for a cider focused taproom in the Seattle area. Erik pursued the Pommelier™ certification out of his love for cider, his interest in sharing all the nuances of the beverage and its history with others, and to be a part of its future.