Cider- that most British of beverages- has been made since Roman time, being the drink of choice for noblemen and peasants alike for centuries. Back in the fourteenth century during prolific years, cider making monks had to be officially banned by the church from baptising infants in cider! A few hundred years later many believed cider was in fact considered superior to wine " the cider made in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire being in great quantities carried to London and sold at a very high rate and valued above wines in France..." wrote John Worlidge in 1676.
Emigrating 6 years ago, it has surprised me that New Zealand has such a limited cider industry. What is available in most supermarkets is more like a fizzy apple juice lacking in alcohol and high in sugar. Perhaps kiwis do not like cider? But more likely not many, certainly on an industry level, have attempted to make a real cider.
There is probably a reasonable market, and boutique cideries could be a natural extension to our wineries. Being a logical way to add value to apple orchard returns for smaller growers and moreover a way to use up discarded, small or misshapen fruit.
To make a good traditional cider, the first requirement is the apple variety used in the blend. Not just any apple will do and selected cider varieties are not readily available throughout New Zealand- yet. In the same way you can't make vintage wine out of any old table grapes, you can't make good cider from any old insipid apple. Most local cider makers have to make do with what's available, with Granny Smith, Cox and Braeburn obvious choices. Sturmer pippin cooking apples were widely used in the 1980's in Nelson and Marlborough producing an excellent non-astringent cider.
Real cider apples are divided into 4 categories: sharps, sweets (similar to a cooking apple), bittersharps and bittersweets. These are defined by malic acid and tannin levels e.g. bittersharp varieties have more than 0.2g/100ml of tannin and more than 0.45g/100ml of acid. Cider apples are generally so sour they are virtually inedible, even birds won't touch them.
Whilst in cider making, four characteristics are involved: sweetness- for fermentation, sharpness (acidity), astringency (tannin) and aroma/good flavour (volatiles).
Dessert apples produce a bland sweet cider, which needs blending with a sharp variety. Cider growers in New Zealand like the highly successful Bulmer Harvest Cider, Gisborne, use Granny Smith and Braeburn juice sourced from local orchards with imported bittersweet varieties from their orchards in England, these apples contain far more tannin bringing the unique flavour to the blend. Founded in 1990, this now multi million dollar company continues to grow here and overseas with increasing sales from five thousand to over two million litres in five years. Proving resurgence in cider making may well be underway.
Specialist nurseries such as Waimea Nurseries in Nelson are now stocking selected varieties such as Kingston Black a small bittersharp apple from Devon. Described by Canterbury cider enthusiast Mike Potter as the Rolls Royce of apples, producing "full- bodied cider with a distinct flavour" adding "it's one of the few you can use on its own to make cider- most have to be blended". He has planted 500 cider trees at Loburn north of Christchurch, with a total of 33 cider types in his collection. Mike is also happy to sell budwood although growers would need to buy their own rootstock and graft the tree themselves. Growing cider apples is very similar to any other apple having similar requirements to climate, soils, site selection, nutrition and irrigation.
Of course there's no need to wait for your own trees to bear fruit in order to give cider making a go at home. As this year's apple season gets underway anybody into growing apples can easily make the step to thinking about home-brewed cider.
Reputably easier than brewing beer and much more so than wine. And if dessert apples are all that's on hand, you can also boost the tannin levels to give cider its characteristic bite, by adding grape tannin, available for a winemaking supply store, or simply blend with crab-apples, which are both high in malic acid, and tannin.
