Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Cider Digest #1142
Subject: Cider Digest #1142, 16 June 2004
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1142 16 June 2004
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Cider Digest #1137, 26 May 2004 (Sbmwood65@aol.com)
English cider visit (Derek Bisset)
Cider-enjoyers and 'apple wine' ("McGonegal, Charles")
Send ONLY articles for the digest to cider@talisman.com.
Use cider-request@talisman.com for subscribe/unsubscribe/admin requests.
When subscribing, please include your name and a good address in the
message body unless you're sure your mailer generates them.
Archives of the Digest are available at www.talisman.com/cider
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #1137, 26 May 2004
From: Sbmwood65@aol.com
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 13:32:23 -0400
Hey,
Changing e-mail address to sbmwood@milwpc.com
Thanks
Keep up the good work on Cider Digest!
------------------------------
Subject: English cider visit
From: Derek Bisset <derek_bisset@shaw.ca>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 12:39:30 -0700
I have a few days for a visit to places of cider interest in Enland in mid
September this year .My interest is in cider apple tree growing and cider
with a high content of traditional cider apples How would Brogdale cider
tree collection rate vs the Hereford cider museum as places of interest
for example?Are there accessible orchards in Hereford and Somerset?
I have tried previously with little success to find quality (artisanal
etc. ) cider in the West of England and I would like to have specific
locations where cider is available .
Any advice would be appreciated .
------------------------------
Subject: Cider-enjoyers and 'apple wine'
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <Charles.McGonegal@uop.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 08:27:11 -0500
Our respected and admired colleague Andrew writes:
>And who wants a 'cider' at 10% alcohol? That's a fortified 'apple wine'
which is a different animal!
>(Though we have been here on Cider Digest before, methinks!)
As a cidermaker who regularly skirts the (fuzzy) boundary between 'cider'
and 'apple wine', I could give several answers to this question. The first
of which is 'My Customers'.
As a new entry to the business, I am still feeling out what I can
successfully market in my corner of the world (between Milwaukee and
Chicago), and I find that my efforts easily fall into the categories of
'What they like' and 'What I wish they'd like'. I wish they'd like 'country
cider'. Let me restate that - I wish _more_ people knew about, and liked, a
simply produced, un-fiddled-with country cider.
At this point, let me delete a big paragraph or four bemoaning consumer
expectations and speculating on strategies for pursuing beer-consumer and
wine-consumer sub-markets. As Andrew notes, we've been there.
So let me switch tactics. I think that cider-makers and -enjoyers are
uniquely positioned to appreciate chaptalized styles of apple wines.
Most small wineries, at least in the American Midwest, try making apple
wines. These wineries often make 'hard' ciders for local markets (under the
radar of even this forum) - but they _promote_ (and sell in their tasting
rooms) their wine-like efforts. In my
Not-So-Humble-And-Extremely-Subjective-Opinion, way too many of these table
wine offerings cater to the worst of consumers' expectations;
self-reinforcing an image of sweet, overtly juice-like wines that rarely
meet the quality of vinifera wines.
Cider-philes know better. We know that dry can be execellent. That juice
notes are as out of place in (most) apple fermentations as Welch's flavor
would be in fine red wines. We know that acidity and tannins have their
critical roles, and that apple tannins are not the same as grape tannins in
fermatation or end taste. We know that great product means going back to
great cultivars and growing practices. We know that with a thousand
cultivars to choose from (In the US alone), apple fermentations can be as
subtle and varied as the effort put into them.
I would like to suggest that cider-ejoyers encourage quality products and
push for excellence in both traditional ciders and chaptalized styles. And
that cidermaker institutions (such as they are) recognize excellence of
product and practice as well as distinguishing among styles.
And one small note, whilst I hop off my soap box. Can we please be careful
with the term 'fortified'? Pommeau is fortified (with spirits). Table wine
(by ATF/TTB definition) is 7-14% ABV, and in the case of apples, is merely
chaptalized.
Charles McGonegal
AEppelTreow Winery
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #1142
*************************
