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argument, whi e cider iconoclastsactrvely court the craft beer bunch,using bold new flavors to makedrinkers dltch the grains and lovethe fruit

Cider is relatrvely new on theU S modern beverage scene,although it was nearly ubrquitous ondining tables of Pilgrims and earlycolonists. lt enjoyed widespreadpopular ty in the United States untiLProh bitron, when teetota ers intenton universal temperance actualyuprooted " demon " orchards ofcider apples. As a consequence,n'any of those app e varieties ,n/e-e

lost to history.Now, a dedrcated f ew are try-

ing to rev ve the growing of ciderapples, whlch differ from so-calledcu inary or dessert apples in thatthey're bareLy palatable for straighteating. Pressed and fermented,however, tiese nigl--rar^ r nLg-

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hat is hard cider, anyway?The increasingly popularbeverage, which is basically

fermented apple jurce, rs categorizedas wine by the Alcoho and TobaccoTax and Trade Bureau of the U.S.leasury Department. Yet it's trackedby the Beer Institute, a national tradeassoclatlon for the brew ng ndustry,which includes hard cider in its broaddef rnition of beer,

Cider makers might place them-selves in either camp, with themore tradltional cideries f rrmly andproudly on the flne wine side of the

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VINEYARD .. WINERY MANAGEMENT Sept Oci 2016 ww,t \",,lmmedia com

gets of fruit produce the complexand satisfying f Iavors that are driv-ing the phenomenal growth of thecider industry.

To get a snapshot of the U.S.cider industry today, we spoketo three cider makers around thecountry: Diane Flynt, who operatesFoggy Ridge Cider on her 250-acreorchard in Dugspur, Va., takes a

traditionalist approach to makingaward-winning ciders that are wellsuited for fine dining tables. EllenCavalli and her husband, ScottHeath, own Tilted Shed Ciderworksin Sonoma County, Calif., and growheirloom and cider apples on their5.4-acre farm. They're traditional-ists - with a twist. They love to

she needed to build her cidery, aswell as the flexibility required tomaster her new role as orchardistand cider maker.

Flynt was, in a sense, returningto her roots, buying a 25O-acre farmhigh in the Blue Ridge Mountainsafter growing up in a small Georgiatown with grandparents who werefarmers. She consulted with appleand cider experts to decide whatvarieties to plant and left the orchardfor weeks at a time to volunteer atwineries and cideries so she couldlearn the art of fermentation first-hand. She took seminars, as well asa class taught by U.K. cider expertPeter Mitchell at his Clder Academyin Southwest England.

Diane Flynt of Foggy Ridge Cider likens her process to winemaking and only usescarefully chosen cider apples.

experiment. Nat West calls himselfa "cider evangelist" and takes thename Reverend Nat. He runs hiseponymous urban cidery in Port-land, Ore., where he draws devot-ed customers mainly from craftbeer aficionados who love his fla-vorful concoctions.

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After 15 years in the bankrngindustry, Flynt left her job becauseshe needed more time to plan andplant her cider apple orchard insouthwest Virginia and to developher knowledge of pomology (grow-ing apples) and enology. So shejoined a bank consulting companyfor a job that gave her the cash flow

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In 1997, FIynt planted morethan 30 varieties of cider apples. " I

picked my apples not because theywere old or heritage, but becausethey were cider apples with thecomplex f lavor, tannin and acidityneeded for f ine cider," she says."My favorites are Hewe's Crab,Ashmead's Kernel and Dabinett.There's a lot of romance in thenames. "

ln 2004, she made her f irst cider;in 2005, she made her f irst sale.Since then, she's racked up acco-Iades and medals for her four spar-kling ciders and two apple ports.ln 2015 and 2016, she received a

James Beard Award nomination forOutstanding Wine, Beer or SpiritsProf essional.

Sept oc. 2016 | Vtruevnno & wtNEFy MANAGEMENT b5

Flynt takes cider's kinship towine very seriously, even servingon Virginia's Wine Board. "A lot ofpeople think of cider like beer, butit's not at all Iike beer, " she says."lt's a fermented beverage, justlike wlne. We just happen to fer-ment apples rather than grapes. "

Just as with wine, the quality ofthe fruit makes all the difference."lf you want to make a high qual-ity cider, you'll need to use ciderapples, " says Flynt. "Just like inthe wine industry, you can makewine f rom any grape, but no onewould think that wine made f romMuscadine would be in the qualityrealm of wine made from Caber-net Sauvignon or Chardonnay, Thesame goes f or cider. "

Flynt notes that Thomas Jef-ferson also made cider from oneof her favorite apples, Hewe'sCrab, but the romance stops there."While colonial-era cider no doubthad its charms. with modern wine

and cider making tools coupled wrthexcellent cider apple varieties, l'msure the cider we create today ts

more consistently 'f ine cider' thanwhat earlier cider makers were ableto pull off .

Cavalli and Heath lived in North-ern New Mexico, tending an organ-ic farm while freelancing (she as aneditor and he as a master printer ofintaglio). A neglected apple orchardon their property piqued the cou-ple's curiosity about apples andtheir uses. Soon they were hookedon hard cider, so much so that Scottwas lured to upstate New Yorkto study cider maklng with PeterMitchell, and the two were drawnto a historic apple growing region in

Sonoma County.

They now live on a 5.4-acre farmin Sebastopol, where they tendtheir own pomological research sta-tion using organic agricultural prac-tices and conduct trials of about100 traditional cider apples theybegan planting in early 20'11 Untiltheir own trees are up to speed,they're making a variety of cidersfrom organic apples purchasedf rom other growers and gleanedfrom an old, abandoned ciderorchard, but only those within a

35-mile radius of their cidery. That'sbecause they've discovered ter-

roir makes a huge difference in thetaste of their cider.

"We believe in terroir, def initely,for our apples," says Cavalli. "Thequality rs incredible. For the samereason that the wine grapes hereresult in this quality, textured wine,it's the same with our apples."

Unfortunately for apple enthusi-asts, however, orchards in SonomaCounty don't stand much of a

chance when vineyards can producesuch stellar - and profitable -wine. "lt can be very discouragingsometimes when you drive downGravenstein Highway and see yetanother orchard being plowed underand planted to wine grapes," Cavallisays, adding, " I don't want to painta picture that it's bleak. lt's chal-lenging, but I feel that now theredef initely is an interest in cider and,because of that, in apples. "

Ellen Cavalli and Scott Health of 'l'itled Shed Ciderworks in Sebastopol have planted 100

traditional cider apple trees on their Sebastopol farm, citing terroir is key for quality.

Cavalli gets excited about thelineage of her trees, all of whichwere started from grafts pur-chased from sources such asTrees of Antiquity in Paso Roblesor acquired in scion exchangeswith other orchardists throughoutthe United States. "We have Rox-bury Russets growing on our farmthat date back to 1617 in Roxbury,Mass. We have some that origi-nated in Normandy, and a lot fromthe United Kingdom. We have onef rom Spain and one f rom ltaly andearly American ones, too."

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It's unJikely that vineyards willever be plowed under to accom-modate more app e orchards, butCava li would be content if morepeople gave cider its due. "My hopeis that the work that we and otherorchard-based clder makers aredo ng can hslp ed.care, .rorivateand inspire people to hold cider withthat same reverence, humility andlnquirV that peop e do with wine. "

West rs the odd man out amongthese three cider makers - hedoesn't grow hls own fruit, hemakes cider in the heart of a cityand his customer base ls ma n ybeer drinkers - but that doesn'tmake his operation, Reverend Nat'sHard Clder, any ess successful.

Since he started his businesstn 2011, it's grown by eaps andbounds. His c dery is now the larg-est in Portland, Ore., and one of

Nat West crafts ciders that appeal to beer drinkers.

the f ive argest n the Pacif c North-west. He sel s h s dozen or sociders in frve states, as we as n

Japan and S ngapore.West, who descrbes hlmse f as

a craft beer geek, is unashamed ofhls appealto other beer drinkers. lna c ty various y known as Beerva-na and Brewtop a, he was ab e to

tap lnto a curiosity about beer-lrkebeverages. Hls clders had a wrdeappeal from the get-go, drawrngn young men and women as wel

as devotees of natural and g uten-free foods. He adds hops and beer\ easr ro l- s cide's, 10L 10 - e-r ora p ethora of ngredients, ncLud-ing pass onfruit, g nger and cherry

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juices; lemongrass, chili peppersand cloves.

"My goal is to get people tothink of cider as a very open-endedtopic," says West, a former com-puter programmer who knew noth-ing about cider until he startedmaking it. ("The f irst cider I everhad was my own," he admits.)But that, and the fact that, for themost part, he doesn't even usecider apples - cheap culls of gro-cery store apples are good enoughfor his purposes - doesn't stophim from educating himself andothers about cider's history andmultiple styles.

He considers himself a ciderhistorian and maintains what hesays is the largest library of ciderbooks in Portland. Every year forOregon Cider Week, West offersa cider appreciation class for sam-pling ciders from around the world.

"There's as much diversity in cideras there is in wine," he notes.

Nevertheless, unlike Flynt andCavalli, West isn't all that con-cerned with the apples that go lntohis cider. "lt matters far less whatthe variety is," he says. "lt mattersmore what our process is. "

TASTY TIDBITS

* As of December 2015, accord-ing to The Cyder Market survey,there were 542 cider makers inthe United States, up 30% from2014. New York, with 65, hasthe most cider makers.

* Cider apples fall into four cat-egories: sweet (low tannlns, lowacid), bittersweet (high tannins,low acid), sharp (low tannins,high acid), and bittersharp (hightannins, high acid).

* The USDA and the U.S. AppleAssociation are working withfive universities (Universrty ofVermont, University of Michigan,Cornell University, Virginia Techand Washington State University)to research ways to increaseavailability of traditional ciderapples.

* The main cider regions of theworld are Southwest England,Northwest France and NorthernSpain.

Susan G. Hauser is a freelancewriter based in Portland, Ore.,whose lifestyle and business writ-ing appears in a range of publica-tions, from Workforce Managementto O, the Oprah Magazine.

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