I have the privilege of a 20 year relationship with one of the mentioned Cider makers and as a lover of wine I can honestly say that my friend has done something amazing in elevating Cider making to the High Art of wine making. It’s an amazing accomplishment.... a rebirth which I had the pleasure of witnessing.
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I love cider. But the prices you describe (15- 25 USD) would buy a good bottle of wine. Is that a fair price?
I understand about developing a fine product, but developing a popular base is probably the best way to revive and sustain an industry.
15-25 USD per bottle!? Jeez!
A recent drive through Normandy, France had us buying bottle after bottle of the stuff. I’m sure at tops we paid no more than 5€ a bottle. More likely we were paying 2-3€ a bottle. All of it quality Cidre... Just sayin’...
@Arnaud Tarantola
The growing of an apple tree takes the same kind of investment and time commitment as the growing of a grape vine. The process to take those apples through to a great bottle of cider is the same process as making a great bottle of wine. The category deserves the same respect as its peers when it refuses to dilute its juice with frozen concentrates and adjunct flavorings. Everyone would love to deliver a fine bottle of cider for $5.00, however, you get what you pay for. The producers in this article are small family owned properties without the economy of scale that venture capital investment and nationwide distribution bring.
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@VL Poitra
The New York Cider Assoc. has over the last few years visited the great cidre producing regions of Europe thanks to the organizational efforts of Glynwood. One of the goals was to explore the differences in agricultural practices, cultural traditions and production styles. Indeed, cider in Asturias, Spain, and in England are also very cheap. The industries, though, highly developed over a long period of time, all for different reasons suffer because of the lack of a premium part of the category. Part of our exchange was the European producers expressing a need to develop a premium image in order to ensure their long-term viability. Other advantages that keep European prices low, include governmental subsidies and the legal use of mechanical harvesting. It's hard to compare pricing in totally different economic and cultural environments.
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Love this. Planning a trip.
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I am a wine lover but I also love, love, love the return of hard cider as an alternative to both it and beer. As so beautifully described in this article, cider making helps preserve our New England landscape, the trees last for generations, and the creativity and variety in the product are almost unlimited. God made apples for us, let us make cider from them. And applesauce, and pies, and crumbles, baked and fresh with cheese, the list is endless!
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Living in the Loire Valley back in the seventies on a property that included dozens of different apple trees each planted to honor friends of the painter and Paris decorator who once owned the seventeenth century manor, I couldn't resist trying my hand at cider making when hidden in a grange I found a large press bought during the war but left covered up and unused since.
From the library I dragged out an ancient copy of Larousse Agricole and set to work learning the basics of the art. I was only modestly successful the several years I pressed. There were the bottles that turned to vinegar, of excellent quality though it was. Some of the bottles I stored away in our deep cave were ordinary. But there were a few that had the quality of champagne---tiny bubbles and a delicate taste.
As this article states, the quality of cider improves with the diversity of apples used. This was made clear in my Larousse. I've always liked being around apple orchards, having worked seasonally in one in the Sierra Foothills in my youth, swamping, pruning. I have a great memory of on a whim while travelling in New England taking a job picking Macintosh apples in Connecticut every morning being given a large jug of apple juice to get me through the day by the farmer who hired me.
The tradition of cider making that I restarted in my adopted village outside Orleans continues to this day. The owner/ family still possessed then the right to cook the apple remains for making eau de vie.
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HAVING BEEN SUBJECTED TO Clearly insufficiently aged cider in the province of Brittany, I concur with the writer's description of cider that is disgusting to drink. What I wonder, though, is how much time is required to make the cider derived from what are known as "bitter apples" palatable, or even enjoyable.
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The finest ciders of the Finger Lakes come from Central NY, not Western NY.
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Trees tend to love rocky soil: not only something for the roots to grasp but also the channeling and percolation of water.
There's a reason why the rocky soil of the Northeast is more forested now than since before the wider spread of forest clearance of the mid-18th century.
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@ Karl Melrose, MA
But has the taste of the apples and apple cider change in the last 230 years?
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