Apples not just for juice anymore

This might seem an odd time to think about apple ciders and apple wines, but don’t be surprised if you end up serving some at your Fourth of July backyard picnic.

The ancient libations, habitually the object of consumer attention in the fall when apple harvests take place, are part of a growing niche in the U.S. and elsewhere as more and more entrepreneurs look for products that will endear them to those consumers.

And it’s not just boutique American cider- and winemakers who are making their presence felt. Larger foreign producers, particularly from the United Kingdom, are targeting the U.S. market with their latest apple-based products.

They no doubt became emboldened enough to plan such a market expansion when a year ago a Nielsen market survey reported that cider had experienced the biggest year-over-year increase in UK beverage sales, jumping 29% to make it the No. 5 product there after wine, lager beer, blended whiskey and vodka. And, the same report said, cider outstripped beer among UK consumers buying an alcoholic beverage for the first time. So, why not the huge U.S. market?

As a result, Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Organic Cider is going national in the U.S. this month. It is a product of the oldest brewery in Yorkshire, England, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year.

As the company explained in an announcement, "Apple juice used to produce cider contains a mix of apple varieties selected to balance fresh apple flavor with tartness, acidity, and sweetness. Samuel Smith's uses a wine yeast strain to ferment their cider, providing a clean finish and allowing pure apple flavor to shine through."

The naturally gluten-free beverage is 5% alcohol by volume (ABV), equal to 10 proof. It also is high in antioxidants and is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

From north of our border, Domaine Pinnacle also has gotten in on the act. The Canadian orchard and winery that produces some of the world's top-ranked iced apple wines has just introduced what is believed to be the first sparkling ice apple wine.

It is made from a blend of six different types of apples, hand picked after the first frost. Once the frozen water is removed, the remaining juices are cold fermented for up to eight months. Production of the 12% ABV apple wine is limited to 30,000 cases.

"Pinnacle Ice Apple has already proved ... a superb quality alternative aperitif or dessert wine which is growing in popularity ... ," said Cyril Camus, president of the Camus firm that is distributing the ice wine.

Domaine Pinnacle, founded in 2000, is located on a 430-acre property on the slopes of Pinnacle Mountain near the village of Frelighsburg in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, near the Vermont border. In fact, its cidery and retail shop are located in the property's original 1859 farmhouse which offers views of Quebec, Vermont and New York State.

Pinnacle is owned and operated by Susan and Charles Crawford, with the wine- and cider-making handled by Christian Barthomeuf, the French emigré who pioneered ice wine making in Quebec.

Despite these newcomers, the market does not belong to the imports.

Farnum Hill Ciders, at Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, NH, has been growing heirloom apple trees for 16 years and making ciders in a very traditional (i.e., English) way.

Rather than the Macintosh, Delicious, Jonathan and Braeburn apples we see in stores, traditional ciders from Farnum and some other growers rely on such varieties as Esopus Spitzberg, Yarlington Mill, Kingston Black, Medaille d'Or and Dabinett to turn out a wide variety of ciders, each with its own nuances. These varieties that were cellar staples in colonial times or in common usage in Europe, but now are rarities here.

Apple-based ciders and wines are becoming a steadily increasing slice of business for a cluster of producers in the area where New York, Massachusetts and Vermont come together near Albany, NY.

The Brookview Station Winery at the Goold Orchard in Castleton, NY, turns out a line of apple wines. The North River Winery of Jacksonville, VT, offers 18 different wines made from apples as well as other fruits. And, nearby in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, the Furnace Brook Winery at Hilltop Orchards makes wine and cider from apples to supplement its line of grape wines.

In various winemaking competitions, apple cider and apple wine products have been winning medals.

At the latest Hudson Valley Commercial Wine Competition held in upstate New York, the Cornell Cup for "Best Hudson River Region (AVA) Wine" went to Brookview Station Winery's 2006 Semi-Dry Apple Wine, and the gold medal for best sparkling fruit wine went to Doc's Hard Apple Cider, produced by Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery which is located just an hour’s drive north of midtown Manhattan.

And, in an otherwise grape-centric region of upstate New York, judges at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition awarded a gold medal for under-7% ABV cider to Petit Pomme Cidre Leger 2006 from Les Vergers Petit et Fils of Quebec.

When shopping for cider, it is important to understand its definition. While some people refer to apple juice as cider, true cider must be fermented to release alcohol. “Hard cider” runs anywhere from 3 to 15% ABV in traditional blends. And, although it usually is made from apples, there also is a pear cider, known in England as perry and still popular across the English Channel in the Normandy region of France as well as up north in Sweden.

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MAKING YOUR OWN HARD CIDER

If you’re ambitious you can always make your own hard cider. Directions are available online from various do-it-yourselfers, ranging from hobbyist to professional sites. Here is a step-by-step procedure culled from such sources:

SUPPLIES

• If you can obtain a clean wooden barrel, that is best since it allows the liquid to breathe. However, you can use clean five-gallon glass or plastic jugs.

• You will need an air lock to keep out air and let in gas produced by the chemical reaction. It is available from vendors dealing in winemaking supplies. Or, you can drill a hole in the bottle stopper or cap then insert a clean plastic tube that fits snugly into the hole. One end of the tube will go into the container and the other into a separate container of water to allow gas to bubble out and keep air from getting in.

• Begin with commercial apple cider as your base, preferably one made of three or more types of apples and definitely without preservatives. You can obtain this from a local cider mill. Ask if the cider has been cold pasteurized, which kills unwanted microorganisms with ultraviolet light rather than heat which would affect the taste.

• If desired, you can use yeast in your process although it is not mandatory. Dry wine yeasts can be used to help ferment your cider.

PROCESS

• To make a dry hard cider, add one pound of sugar per gallon. For a sweeter liquid, add 1 ½ pounds per gallon.

• Put the air lock on the container and store at 60 to 70 degrees for 8-10 weeks. (The sugar will take longer to turn to alcohol if stored at lower temperatures.)

• After the aging period, siphon the cider from the container into a clean container, wash the original container, then return the cider to it. Be sure to avoid touching the sediment in the original container with the siphon hose.

• Store cider at 40-60 degrees for six months to as long as you wish to age it, particularly if you use a wooden barrel.
in a wooden barrel.

NOTE

You can get details of additional steps to create different expressions of hard cider to fit your taste, available time and finances from these online sources:

• Mother Earth News
• Cornell University horticulture
• Virtual Orchard

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And now, an apple ice sparkler

Domaine Pinnacle, the Canadian orchard and winery that produces some of the world's top-ranked iced apple wines, has introduced what is believed to be the first sparkling ice apple wine.

The venue was the Tax Free World Exhibition in Singapore last week.

The wine is made from a blend of six different types of apples, hand picked after the first frost. Once the frozen water is removed, the remaining juices are cold fermented for up to eight months. Production of the 12% ABV wine is limited to 30,000 cases.

"Pinnacle Ice Apple has already proved ... a superb quality alternative aperitif or dessert wine which is growing in popularity ... ," said Cyril Camus, president of the Camus firm that is distributing the ice wine.

Domaine Pinnacle, founded in 2000, is located on a 430-acre property on the slopes of Pinnacle Mountain near the village of Frelighsburg in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, near the Vermont border. In fact, its cidery and retail shop are located in the property's original 1859 farmhouse which offers views of Quebec, Vermont and New York State.

Pinnacle is owned and operated by Susan and Charles Crawford, with Christian Barthomeuf, a French emigré who pioneered ice wine making in Quebec.

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U.S. wine consumption closing in on France's

From Wine Spectator:

In spite of a sluggish economy, U.S. wine consumption registered its 14th consecutive annual gain in 2007, as Americans drank more wine than Italians for the first time ever and now trail only the French in total wine consumed.

After a solid 4% gain last year, U.S. wine consumption stood at a record 301.5 million 9-liter cases, according to the recently released 2007 edition of "The Global Drinks Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast." American consumption is expected to further increase in the foreseeable future, and at current rates, the United States will surpass France as the world's largest wine-consuming market within five years.

In per-capita terms, Americans still lag far behind the French and Italians, consuming less than 9 liters per adult in 2007. Per-capita consumption in France and Italy, by contrast, stood at 52 liters and 46 liters, respectively, last year.

China was the world's fastest-growing wine market in 2007, and the Chinese represent a tremendous upside for consumption as their per-capita level stood at only a half-liter last year.

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English organic cider hitting U.S. market

Samuel Smith's Organic Cider is going national next month.

Cider is a gradually growing niche in the U.S. low-alcohol beverage field. This particular one is an English import from Samuel Smith's Old Brewery -- celebrating its 250th anniversary this year -- and is being handled by Merchant du Vin of Seattle.

As the company explained in an announcement, "Apple juice used to produce cider contains a mix of apple varieties selected to balance fresh apple flavor with tartness, acidity, and sweetness. Samuel Smith's uses a wine yeast strain to ferment their cider, providing a clean finish and allowing pure apple flavor to shine through."

The naturally gluten-free beverage is 5% alcohol by volume, or 10 proof, for those of you who prefer that measurement. It also is high in antioxidants and is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

(Go here for a look at a good line of American ciders made in the traditional way.)

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Study: Aussie wine grapes will survive drought

Despite concern over the drought in Australia, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) says not to worry about wine grapes.

Total wine grape production is forecast to increase by 19% in 2007-08, as a result of improved growing conditions in key production areas, according to a just-released ABARE report.

“Forecast production in 2007-08 is higher than early-season estimates because of greater than expected resilience of vines suffering from drought stress, and water purchasing by growers in drought-affected irrigation areas,” said Philip Glyde, ABARE executive director.

Despite the better than previously expected outcomes, however, production will be well below the record 1.9 million tonnes achieved in 2004-05. Production should reach 1.67 million tonnes in 2007-08.

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RIP wine pioneer Robert Mondavi, 94

Robert Modavi, 94, a giant of the American wine industry, died Friday.

He was the prime force in moving California from a mediocre source of wine to a world-class wine region, particularly in the 1970s. His family said he died peacefully at home in the Napa Valley.

The official obituary:

OAKVILLE, CA (May 16) -- Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley, the founder of the modern U.S. fine wine industry and a global symbol of American wine and food, died today. He was 94. The Mondavi family stated that the legendary vintner died peacefully at his home in Napa Valley.

Robert Mondavi changed the landscape of the U.S. wine industry when he founded his eponymous winery in 1966, inspired by his belief that he could produce world-class wines in Napa Valley. Since that time, the Robert Mondavi Winery has become known as one of the world's leading innovators, producers and marketers of fine wine, firmly establishing America’s rightful place on the world wine stage.

Born in Virginia, MN, to parents who emigrated from Sassoferrato in the Marche region of Italy, Robert was greatly influenced by Old World traditions of the pleasures of wine and food. The family moved to Lodi, California, during Prohibition and he attended public schools there.

A 1936 graduate of Stanford with a degree in economics and business administration, Robert understood that marketing was as critical as winemaking expertise in achieving success in the wine industry. He joined his father at Sunnyhill Winery in St. Helena, CA, a bulk wine producer. After convincing his father to purchase the Charles Krug Winery there, he upgraded the
technology, determined to raise quality—a commitment which never faltered. He began to offer public tours and tastings in the 1950s, something unheard of in Napa Valley, and not even done in the established wineries of France.

In 1966, at age 53, he established the Robert Mondavi Winery, the first major winery built in Napa Valley since the 1933 repeal of Prohibition. Robert hired architectural designer Cliff May for his fledgling winery, which he intended as an enduring landmark to California history, reflecting this in its iconic, mission-style architecture. Using an architect was already enough to raise the eyebrows of locals, but to their amazement, Robert also included public spaces for education and entertainment, which completely bewildered his neighbors.

At his winery, Robert pioneered many fine winemaking techniques in California, including cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and the use of French oak barrels. As a marketing leader, he initiated blind tastings of Napa Valley wines with other world-class wines, allowing consumers and the trade to evaluate wine quality and value. By the l970s, Robert Mondavi wines were recognized for their quality internationally, and California’s fine wine industry benefited from Robert’s pioneering work in the export market.

Dedicated to fostering a wine culture in America, Robert also expanded his educational tours and wine tastings. Under his tutelage, and with his wife Margrit, for four decades the winery has celebrated the pleasures of wine, food and the arts; and provided creative settings for jazz and classical concerts, art exhibits and comprehensive cultural and culinary programs
including the Great Chefs program, which has featured such luminaries as Julia Child, Paul Bocuse, Alice Waters and Joel Robuchon.

Never one to rest on his laurels, in l979, Robert joined forces with Baron Philippe de Rothschild, creating the Opus One Winery in Oakville. An immediate international success, Opus One created a world sales record for California with a $24,000 case price at the first Napa Valley Wine Auction. He and his wife, Margrit, were among the founding members of that auction, which is now recognized as the major wine auction in the U.S.

Firmly committed to the everyday enjoyment of wine and food, Robert wanted to see a bottle of wine on every American table. To that end, in 1979 Robert bought a winemaking cooperative that he named Woodbridge, after a nearby town. Innovations at Woodbridge included the first value-priced US wines with barrel aging; traditional cork finishing; a gentle, direct-to-press method for white wines; the first US premium varietal wines with vintage dating; and the first winery to operate Quality Enhancement Teams with a “small lot” program, through which grapes are kept individual vineyard lots during fermentation.

Robert further expanded his horizons through international partnerships with the Frescobaldi family in Italy and Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errazuríz in Chile.

During the late l980s, Robert launched the Mission Program to counteract anti-alcohol campaigns that were gathering force around the world. The Mission educated media, trade and consumers about the cultural and health benefits of moderate wine consumption. This program was the stimulus for CBS' “60 Minutes” program on wine and health, which changed America's
view of wine.

In 1994, Robert introduced Robert Mondavi Private Selection, a line of high quality, affordable fine wines that reflect the distinctive vineyards of California’s Central and North Coast appellations.

In recent years, Robert was a major benefactor of cultural and educational institutions. COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, a world-class pioneering cultural center, opened in 2001. With a history of extraordinary contributions to California's wine industry, Robert and his wife made a substantial personal gift in 2001 to the University of California, Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and to name the campus' new Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 2002. He also made significant gifts to the Oxbow School and the Cantor Center of the Arts at Stanford University.

An uncompromising perfectionist, Robert believed that if you wish to succeed, "...you must listen to yourself, to your own heart, and have the courage to go your own way." These and other lessons from his life are the subject of his autobiography, "Harvests of Joy," published in l998 by Harcourt, Brace & Co. He was honored by countless national and international institutions, including France's Legion of Honor (2005), the government of Italy and many U.S. institutions including being the first “Pioneer” inductee in the founding year of the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintners Hall of Fame in 2006. In August 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Robert Mondavi’s induction into the California Hall of Fame at The
California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. Robert remained an active ambassador for the winery until his death.

While services will be private, a remembrance book will be available in Le Marche, the winery’s visitor center, and at the visitor center of Woodbridge winery in Lodi, CA for the next four weeks for anyone wishing to share a message or condolence. The books will be given to the Mondavi family.

In addition to his wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, Robert Mondavi leaves three children, Michael, Marcia and Timothy; nine grandchildren; and his brother, Peter. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to COPIA; the University of California at Davis; The Oxbow School; and Stanford University.

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A cider tasting: Getting back to basics

William M. Dowd photo

There are few plants on the Earth that somewhere, some time, somehow, someone hasn't tried turning into an alcoholic beverage.

From Egyptian pharonic dynasty beer that was thick with fibers and seeds to today's multiply-filtered, pasteurized craft brews. From accidentally fermented grapes and other fruits that led us to today's fine wines. From rough, raw alcoholic drinks to today's premium spirits. And from semi-sweet to extra dry fermented apple cider of the Middle Ages to -- well, to the semi-sweet to extra dry fermented apple cider of today.

Let's talk about that.

Cider is truly an ancient drink. It is neither wine nor apple juice nor what today passes for commercial cider in the United States, that overpowering stuff made from sweet dessert apples, often goosed up with bittersweet apple concentrate and loaded with high fructose corn syrup in the manner of most soft drinks. In the U.S. we tend to call the original version "hard cider" to differentiate it from the non-alcoholic version. Elswehere, it's just plain cider.

Traditional cider, higher than beer in alcohol content but lower than wine at about 6.5 to 8.5 percent -- meaning in the 13 to 17 proof range, is made in various parts of Europe from apple strains with which the average consumer is not familiar: Somerset Redstreak, Medaille d'Or, Bulmer's Norman, Kingston Black and Dabinett, for example. You won't find such popular eating apples as Macintosh, Delicious, Granny Smith, Cortland and the like in anything considered a fine cider.

There even is a pear cider, known as perry, much less popular but traditional nevertheless. It has been made for centuries in Britain, particularly in the west and in Wales, and remains popular across the English Channel in the French region of Normandy and up north in Sweden. It is made virtually the same way as apple cider, usually with an 8 percent alcohol volume, which means 16 proof. The most common UK cider pear is the Blakeney Red, not an appealing eating fruit but just right for cider.

A mutual acquaintance put me onto Farnum Hill Ciders, made at Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, N.H., near the Vermont border. He touted it as an excellent example of traditional European cider making, "not at all sweet like the usual ciders you get in supermarkets. More like a selection of wines."

Farnum Hill, owned and operated by Stephen Wood and Louisa Spencer, has been growing what they refer to as "real cider apple trees" for the past 16 years. Their crops are heirloom variety apples that were cellar staples in colonial times or in common usage in Europe, but now rarities here. Esopus Spitzberg, Yarlington Mill and the aforementioned Kingston Black, Medaille d'Or and Dabinett allow Wood to turn out a wide variety of ciders, each with its own nuances.

I convened a four-person panel to sample and evaluate a quartet of Farnum Hill ciders -- a sparkling trio of Farmhouse, Semi-Dry and Extra-Dry and an Extra-Dry Still.

Cider makers tend to speak of their products as winemakers do of theirs, and urge them to be consumed with food. We set up our tastebuds with a light tapas assortment -- chicken satays with spicy peanut sauce or dots of wasabi, stuffed mushrooms and assorted cheeses (an eight-year-old Canadian cheddar, a raw cow's milk gruyere called L'Etivaz from Switzerland, and a raw whole sheep's milk Abbaye de Belic from the Aquitaine province in the south of France).

Wood suggests, "When you taste, it might be best to avoid interspersing our ciders with sweeter ones, either European or American. Certain juxtapositions could be cruel to some or all."

While I understood his concern about interspersing, I disagree that there should be no comparison. We had small glasses of another New England product with our tapas, a tasty, sweet sparkling "American Cider" called Johnny Mash. It's a 12-proof, oak aged beverage created in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts by Furnace Brook Winery at Hilltop Orchards near the village of Richmond. Because it is more akin in taste with commonly-found American ciders, it offered a good baseline for comparison of the dry European-style Farnum Hill ciders. And, it has performed exceedingly well in cider competitions for more than a decade.

Our tasting notes:

• Farmhouse Cider: This is a pale gold, light bodied slightly sparkling cider. It wasn't overwhelmed by the tapas and cider that came before it, but it put our panel in the right frame of mind: i.e., don't expect a big apple bang on the palate the way we've been conditioned to expect from American-style ciders. Mid-palate apple taste, but not from start to finish. Farmhouse would be nice with mild foods, but overwhelmed by anything spicy.

• Semi-Dry: A slightly more apple-y taste, but with hints of tropical fruit. Tarter than the Farmhouse, very subdued nose. If you fool with it long enough, you begin to extract more taste. Although the maker calls it "a happy companion to most foods," our panel disagreed, noting it worked best with a bit of sliced apple and the gruyere that helped coax out the flavor.

• Extra Dry: This one was a hit with all involved, possibly because of the more forward taste of apple, a fragrant nose one of our tasters said is "closer to the kind of balance you'd expect from a good wine." Here again, we disagreed with the maker's evaluation that it would be "a palate-cleansing friend to most foods, except perhaps desserts." We felt it would go well particularly with desserts because, of the four Farnum Hill ciders we tried, this one stood up best in all categories -- golden color, full nose and body, and a long, pleasant aftertaste.

• Extra-Dry Still: Not a hit with anyone. We found it pallid by comparison to its companions, too acidic and, as one put it, "it would benefit from a spritz."

Farnum Hill has seven different ciders, some of them seasonal. Because apple quality varies season to season, there will be some variations in the ciders from year to year, much like grape quality affects wine whereas other alcoholic beverages are far less beholden to the crops used in their creation.

In essence, this tasting went about the same way most do. Individual values and tastes created some division among the panelists, but the best was deemed best by all and the weakest weakest by all.

One other thing we all agreed on was that cider should be anything but a forgotten beverage of choice when it comes to food pairings, no matter the season. It deserves being returned to the esteem in which it once was held in this country, and offers a distinct alternative to the everyday drinks we consume.

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A celebri-quote: Jessica Alba

• Actress and mother-to-be Jessica Alba commenting to Gossip Girls.com on how pregnancy has changed her beverage choices.

"Sometimes I want a few glasses of wine. I get half a glass maybe once a week and I don’t even like it. It tastes different. My taste buds are different.

"I miss Scotch, too.”

You can get information on the affects of alcohol on pregnancy at the American Pregnancy Association Web site.

[Go here for more Celebri-Quotes.]

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