Virtue Cider Taps Watershed Communications

Virtue Cider, a new Chicago-based hard cider venture, has named Watershed Communications its agency of record. Watershed is a national brand strategy and communications firm based in Portland, Oregon, with an office in Brooklyn, New York, and is known for its work with craft brands like Nancy's Yogurt, Steven Smith Teamaker and FAIR Spirits.

Virtue Cider is a new branch-to-bottle enterprise from Gregory Hall, former Brewmaster at Goose Island Beer Co., and co-founder Stephen Schmakel. Virtue's mission is to make a series of English, French and Spanish style ciders that pair well with food and support small farmers, using the highest quality heirloom apple varieties while giving back to the community.

"Virtue's premium product and holistic business approach are right in line with our vision for building longlasting brands in today's artisan economy," says Watershed Founder and Principal Lisa Donoughe.

Kicking off their debut, Virtue launched its first release, RedStreak, in Chicago last week. An English session-style cider, aged in American Oak, RedStreak is now available in draft format at a number of restaurants and bars in the Chicago area, including The Publican, Hopleaf and Lula Caf� with more locations coming soon. Virtue will debut two additional styles of barrel-aged draft cider in the fall of 2012 in Chicago, as well as SW Michigan, New York City and Portland, Oregon.

With offices on both coasts, Watershed is an award-winning agency that specializes in promoting both established national brands and growing regional businesses, with an expertise in helping place-based brands take that big leap to the national scene. It's that mission that pushed Watershed to create the Portland Indie Wine & Food Festival, an annual event that serves as a national launch pad for budding artisan winemakers, and that in 2009 earned founder Donoughe the Portland PRSA chapter's Lifetime Achievement Award for her work helping to put Portland on the map as a thriving culinary destination.

Virtue joins the Oregon Brewers Guild, Montinore Estate, Smith Teamaker, Top Hops Beer Shop, Nostrana and others in the agency's dynamic food and beverage portfolio. For more information, please visit www.watershedcom.com.

For more information about Watershed's services or client list, please visit www.watershedcom.com.


Watershed's mission is to honestly communicate about and add value to the great brands of our generation in order to preserve businesses that enrich our culture. We aim to help each other grow as professionals and as people, to learn something new each day and to do good while doing good work.