<\/p>\n
BALTIMORE \u2013 What do we mean when we talk about cider? It seems pretty straightforward: Cider is the fermented juice of crushed apples. Of course, things immediately get complicated in the United States, because we often have to clarify we\u2019re talking about hard cider, to distinguish it from the soft drink we buy at the farmers market for the family. But once we\u2019ve established that we\u2019re talking about the alcoholic beverage, it should be easy enough to define, right?<\/p>\n
After spending several days here at the eighth annual CiderCon, along with more than 1,000 other cider enthusiasts and makers, I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n
Defining \u201ccider\u201d \u2013 and creating a language to talk about it \u2013 is very much on the agenda of the U.S. Association of Cider Makers, the trade group of more than 1,000 members that puts on CiderCon. Recently, the association released a new \u201cCider Style Guide\u201d that delineates several categories of cider (including spiced, hopped, pear and other non-apple ciders). Most notably, there are now \u201cmodern\u201d ciders, which are made from dessert apples commonly found in supermarkets, such as McIntosh, Jonagold, Gala or Granny Smith. And then there are \u201cheritage\u201d ciders that have \u201cincreased complexity\u201d and \u201ccomplex aromatics.\u201d Most significantly, heritage ciders use traditional bittersweet or bittersharp cider apples, older heirloom varieties or perhaps even crab apples or foraged wild varieties.<\/p>\n
Cider has always found itself betwixt and between. Some cidermakers have followed craft beer as their model, selling cider mostly in cans or on tap, with lots of experimentation, clever branding and nontraditional flavors. Others have followed the wine path, with close attention to apple varieties, orchard practices and fermentation techniques, and sell their ciders in 750-milliliter bottles. The cider association\u2019s style guide now formally recognizes this profound divide in approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to find a way to organize the messy world of cider,\u201d said Eric West, publisher of Cider Guide, who helped create the style guide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hear consumers say, \u2018I\u2019ve had a cider. I don\u2019t like cider.\u2019 But they don\u2019t realize how vast the category is,\u201d said Michelle McGrath, the association\u2019s executive director. \u201cYou can have a hopped apricot cider made from dessert apples, and you can have a bone-dry sparkling cider made from cider or heirloom varieties. People value a wine grape, and we\u2019re trying to get people to value a cider apple.\u201d<\/p>\n
The presenters at CiderCon danced cautiously around the modern vs. heritage cider issue. It came up during a training session for the recently introduced Certified Cider Professional exam (yes, cider is now developing the equivalent of a certified sommelier for wine or Cicerone for beer). \u201cWe use the word \u2018complex\u2019 a lot. But I don\u2019t want to make this a value judgment,\u201d said Brian Rutzen, beverage director at the Northman in Chicago who advises the certification program. \u201cWe want to have a big tent.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clearly a big tent. At a recent gathering, 50 producers were pouring their ciders at an event called Cider Share, and I tasted dozens. There were certainly heritage producers on hand, established cidermakers such as Black Diamond from New York\u2019s Finger Lakes, next to upstart heritage producers such as Milk & Honey or Keepsake from Minnesota and Anxo in Washington.<\/p>\n
But, by and large, the modern style of cider reigned. I tasted lots of hopped ciders, ciders spiced with ginger or pepper, or flavored with black currant, tart cherry or raspberry \u2013 all falling into the association\u2019s categories. Some producers, such as Tandem Ciders from northern Michigan, made both modern and heritage \u2013 a delicious 100 percent McIntosh bottling poured next to one that used mostly the heirloom Rhode Island Greening variety.<\/p>\n
At the table of Noble Cider, from Asheville, North Carolina, I chatted with cidermaker Trevor Baker, an association board member who identifies as a modern cider producer. Among his flavored offerings, Baker poured me a surprising cranberry- orange cider, spiced with habanero pepper. I didn\u2019t know quite what to say after tasting that. I certainly could not discern an apple.<\/p>\n
A cider blogger (yes, cider blogs are now a thing, too) whom I recognized from an earlier session approached Noble\u2019s table, and Baker shouted, \u201cHow\u2019d you like to taste a hopped peach cider?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHell, yes,\u201d she said. \u201cI love ciders with stone fruit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contrast that with a session I attended on Thursday called \u201cChampagne Method Cider,\u201d where I experienced several mind-blowing sparkling ciders made by Eden Specialty Ciders in Vermont, Snowdrift Cider in Washington state and two cidermakers from New York\u2019s Finger Lakes, Eve\u2019s Cidery and Redbyrd Orchard Cider. What we tasted was every bit as complex as fine wine, with the same attention paid to the apples as a winemaker would to the grapes. Such varieties as Kingston Black, Yarlington Mill, Dabinett, Somerset Redstreak and even foraged wild crab apples were discussed with the same reverence as pinot noir or nebbiolo.<\/p>\n
Questions from the audience about aging on the lees, the use of barrels and malolactic fermentation made it feel more like a wine event. Tim Larsen, from Snowdrift, even co-opted an old winemaking cliche: \u201cCidermaking, as everyone here agrees, begins in the orchard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking cider this way is very expensive,\u201d said Autumn Stoscheck of Eve\u2019s Cidery. \u201cBut when you can buy a traditional-method sparkling cider made from beautiful fruit like this for under $20, that\u2019s a great value.\u201d It\u2019s true that few sparkling wines would rival, say, Redbyrd\u2019s $27 Celeste Sur Lie, bone dry with a creaminess balanced by elegant tannins and razor-sharp acidity.<\/p>\n
Yet the sparkling ciders poured in this session come from tiny production runs: fewer than 400 cases a year, and fewer than 100 for the Redbyrd. \u201cWho is this for, and how do you market it?\u201d said Eden cidermaker Eleanor L\u00e9ger, repeating a question from the moderator. \u201cMy first thought is: \u2018I have no effing clue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, 75 percent of cider in the United States is produced by large brands owned by huge beverage companies, such as Angry Orchard, Strongbow, Woodchuck, Crispin and Stella Artois Cidre. But the real growth has recently come from smaller producers: Regional and local cidermakers saw a 30 percent spike in sales last year, after jumping 40 percent in 2016.<\/p>\n
With so many swirling and competing visions of cider, between modern and heritage, big and small, it\u2019s no surprise that confusion occasionally rises. During a session titled \u201cWild Fermentation and Other Heritage Cider Options,\u201d we tasted ciders from hip, in-the-know producers such as Hudson Valley\u2019s Sundstrom, as well as experimental bottlings from Angry Orchard\u2019s Innovation Cider House. \u201cCidermaking is all about choices,\u201d we were told by Tom Oliver, a legendary cidermaker from Herefordshire, England, renowned for his wild, pungent, complex ciders.<\/p>\n
An apple grower from Tyro, Va., named Adam Cooke, stood up and expressed genuine confusion. \u201cI\u2019m at the point where I can plant 20 acres of bittersweet apple varieties,\u201d Cooke said. \u201cBut what I want to know: Is this just a passing trend? Will there be a demand in 10 years?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Burk, the cidermaker at Angry Orchard, admonished him by saying: \u201cBe part of what makes it happen. There\u2019s a different market for Concord grapes and pinot noir.\u201d<\/p>\n
I caught up with Sam Fitz, owner of Anxo, which has been very popular since it opened in Washington. Even though Fitz is new to the scene, he has been elected, during CiderCon, to the association board. He says the future of cider lies in the larger apple growers investing in cider and heirloom apple varieties and cideries moving away from using dessert apples. \u201cWe have to get back to cider apples, heirloom apples,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many Anxos can exist? There just aren\u2019t that many cider apples available.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry is still trying to figure itself out,\u201d said Fitz. \u201cWe don\u2019t really know who our market is.\u201d We tasted some of Anxo\u2019s Cidre Blanc. It is most definitely a heritage cider. But it\u2019s also served in a can.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all up in the air right now,\u201d Fitz said. \u201cBut whatever cider is going to become, it is being decided right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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