My little maiden Md’O has debut bloom this year. I find it at 10% the same day as Hunt Russet debut bloom. We in Spokane are experiencing a four month winter and late spring.
Anyone else find indications Médaille d’Or requires very high chill hours? This may make it (all other factors being favorable, which is too soon to say here) a contender for those who seek a tannin source to make cider.
I don’t know chill requirement, but it is the last to leaf out in my orchard.
Is it high chill requirement or high heat unit requirement that makes these cider varieties bloom late?
Dabinett is sort of late for its first bloom for me this year, but the medal for late blooming goes to Harry Master’s Jersey, which is in pink right now.
Good to know about these other very late blooming varieties to provide a pollen source for their compatriots.
Finally, I wonder if the little Ice Age didn’t have an impact on selection of these late-blooming cider varieties?
Let me build on the present observations:
I have early-mid apple blooms in full swing right now, and yesterday found Hunt Russet and Md’O at 10% bloom. This may indicate a compressed bloom season in this neighborhood due to very high chill hours being met - and perhaps greatly exceeded.
Anybody in the Northern Tier able to weigh in on this?
I don’t think its high chill / high heat, its just the genetics. Euro cider apples have very different genetics and include a lot of the native European wild apple in them. Think Japanese vs Euro plum - different genes and different bloom times. One problem with this late bloom is it creates a massive fireblight problem – late bloomers are absolutely horrible for getting blight. I had a few strikes this spring all on late hanging blooms. For this reason in my orchard I have found Medaille d’Or etc best used as trunks 
The whole point is how genetics are revealed in real conditions. Médaille d’Or is blooming along with another that I wondered if they would overlap times at all. Md’O is only a day behind Hunt Russet, and in full bloom while Rambour Franc is still in full bloom - which is rated as early-mid blooming.
That development may not work out quite so neatly in a spring that comes earlier in these parts, but time will tell. I would never have anticipated Md’O beginning before early-mid apple blooms were still in action!
BTW, I have not seen any evidence of fire blight among my apples. It exists, because an orchard nearby has Rome Beauty and they are dying of it - as is often the case with.wild Serviceberry.
Let me amend that statement:
I would never have anticipated Md’O beginning while early-mid blooms were still in action!