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Cider treks west
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Traditional cider making abounds out
west
By Charles Perry
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Rows of gnarled Pinot Noir vines slumber
under a gray winter sky beside acres of apple trees. The vines belong
to Bethel Heights Vineyard, one of the top Pinot producers in Oregon's
Willamette Valley. The apple orchard -- owned by Mimi Casteel (whose
parents own Bethel Heights) and her husband, Nick Gunn -- produces hard
cider.
It's quite unusual for apple trees and
grapevines to grow side by side. Where both can be grown, the higher
profitability of wine generally means that the apples get taken out.
But here, says Gunn, "The area lacked a good cider maker. We saw
the need as we talked with friends and family."
In 2004, Gunn and Casteel took over the
Traditional Co., a pioneering cider operation near Salem, renamed it
Wandering Aengus Ciderworks and since then have been making it even
more traditional than it was, by planting English and French cider apples.
Cider was a favorite American drink from
Colonial times until it was knocked off its perch by the 20th century
craze for lager beer. As a result, the only cider most of us know is
sweet cider, which is about as complex as unfermented grape juice.
But in the last 15 years there has been
a revival of serious cider in this country. Eight years ago, only two
West Coast brands were commercially available: pioneer Ace and E.&J.
Gallo Winery's mass-produced Hornsby's. Since then at least 10 new cideries
have appeared (two have not survived), more than half of them aging
their product six to 12 months for more cider-savvy palates. They may
still be few and far between, but West Coast cider makers are finally
beginning to make a product to rival the benchmark ciders of Normandy
and England.
Wine and hard cider have a lot in common
-- they both explore the sensuous possibilities of a fruit. Wine, of
course, is the ultimate expression of the grape, while cider brings
out the apple's range: fragrant ripe or even baked apple flavors, always
supported by apple's refreshing crispness. Cider is less alcoholic than
most wines, usually about 5% to 6%.
West Coast movement
Craft cider making is at about the same
stage as craft brewing was 25 years ago, and it's thriving in roughly
the same territory: Despite New England's cider-making heritage, the
new cider wave is largely a West Coast phenomenon. At the moment, there
are about nine commercial craft cideries on the West Coast -- depending
on how you define "commercial" -- and about a dozen in the
remaining 47 states.
Like many commercial cider makers, Wandering
Aengus' Gunn and Casteel began as home cider makers. Others, such as
Chris Murray of Murray's Cyder in Sonoma County, got the bug when they
bought a home that came with orchards and realized the heady possibilities
of cider.
Like wine, craft cider is made from fresh
fruit juice, which will start to ferment naturally even if you don't
add yeast. It comes in many styles, fizzy or flat, aged or not. It can
be bone-dry without a trace of bubbles, like the rustic English cider
known as scrumpy. French cider makers often add ingredients to stop
the fermentation so that the cider will stay a little sweet, and age
it for a year or more. In New England, there's a traditional style that
adds raisins and/or molasses.
The commonest West Coast style is off-dry,
with aromas of fresh or baked apples; Ace Cider (made in Sonoma County)
is a classic of this sort. Others, like Murray's Cyder, are quite dry,
like a Champagne with a hint of apple in the nose.
In fact, cider stands in for wine in
parts of Europe where grapes don't flourish, such as southwestern England
and the northwest of France and Spain. Special cider apple varieties
have been developed there, with unfamiliar names such as Brown Snout,
Foxwhelp, Nehou and Vilberie, and they're as different from dessert
apples as wine grapes are from table grapes.
Cider is the traditional drink of Normandy,
the Calvados country, and there it's served in restaurants exactly as
wine is elsewhere in France. There's a local cult of ultra-small-scale,
farm-produced Norman ciders.
In the sidrerias of northwestern Spain,
cider is served in a spectacular ritual known as "throwing":
You raise the cider bottle high over your head and pour an ounce or
two into a glass you hold down around waist level. The tall splash brings
up the sidra's flavor and gives it a momentary Champagne-like sparkle.
But cider has similarities to beer, too.
Like beer, cider is traditionally given a bitter flavor. All wine grapes
have tannin to give them backbone, but table apples have relatively
little, so certain apples have been bred for bitterness. Cider makers
plant trees that bear bittersweet or bitter-sharp (bitter-tart) apples
to round out the flavor of their cider.
California cideries have so far resisted
using tannic European cider apples. "Not many people in this country
are used to British ciders, some of which would be a little barnyard-y
for their taste," says British-born Jeffrey House, maker of Ace
Cider. "We use eating apples: Gravenstein when we can get it, Granny
Smith, Fuji, Rome and a few others."
House is a pioneer. He got into cider
in 1986 when he found that Irish bars in San Francisco didn't want the
English beers his import firm was handling, but they needed cider. "An
Irish pub has to have a cider," House says. He started bringing
over a well-known English brand, Blackthorn.
Then a larger distributor got the contract.
"So I decided to create an American cider similar to Blackthorn,"
he says. "Now Ace Cider is bigger than Blackthorn." He started
making cider in 1994, and his California Cider Co. now produces 250,000
gallons a year. He recently opened the country's first cider pub, Ace-in-the-Hole,
in Sebastopol, Sonoma County.
Ace Cider is made with a residual bit
of sweetness. But in Forestville, not far from Sebastopol, House has
a neighbor -- also British-born -- who is making a bone-dry sparkling
cider.
"In effect, it's an apple version
of Champagne," says Murray of Murray's Cyder. "We ferment
the cider dry and then put in a dosage of sugar and yeast just before
bottling, the same way they do in Champagne. We riddle the bottles as
well [agitate them at intervals so the yeast lees can be removed, leaving
the wine clear]. A couple of people are doing that in the U.K. too."
He sells the cider when it's about a year old.
Murray's operation, which dates from
1998, is a labor of love (he's a computer programmer). He uses apples
from his own organic orchard and does not expect to make more than 500
cases, or about 1,200 gallons, a year. He sells largely online, at http://www.cyder.com
.
Wandering Aengus' Gunn and Casteel use
bittersweet cider apples such as Nehou and Yarlington Mill and bitter-sharps
such as Herefordshire Redstreak, as well as dessert varieties. "The
astringency plays off the sweetness," says Gunn, "to give
a richer flavor."
Versions, varieties abound
Like about half the West Coast cider
makers, Gunn and Casteel age their ciders about a year. Theirs spend
part of the time in white oak barrels to soften the acidity and tannin.
Wandering Aengus makes about 4,400 gallons of cider yearly, in semisweet
and semidry versions, with a completely dry version in the works. The
semidry version is delicious and elegant, with a gentle effervescence,
aromas like tarte Tatin and a flavor reminiscent of a good Calvados.
Near Portland, Rich and Kristin Ford,
owners of Ford Farms Cyderworks, have thousands of trees bearing what
they fondly call "ugly, bitter little apples" -- 40 varieties
of cider apple. From them they make sparkling cider in the French style,
using a dosage, but not riddling the bottles. As a result, the cider
is a little cloudy, like some French ciders. It's bone-dry, with an
intense, sweet apple aroma and bracing acid. Ford's initial output in
2001 was 480 gallons. It's now up to 2,400 gallons a year.
Washington's craft cideries are at the
north end of the state, near the Canadian border. The farthest north
is Westcott Bay Orchards on San Juan Island. Owners Susan and Richard
Anderson grow 16 varieties of apple, most of them bittersweets. They
sell their cider locally, in Seattle and by mail order.
In Mount Vernon, Skagit County, Red Barn
Cider makes a semidry cider from Jonagold apples and a more ambitious
version, Fire Barrel, using bittersweet and bitter-sharp apples, aged
in Bourbon barrels. Owner Drew Zimmerman says he's not yet set up to
ship out of state; he only started selling cider in September.
Why does he use Bourbon barrels? "Spirit
barrels are traditional for aging cider in Europe," he says. "In
England, they mostly use rum barrels. But I figured, 'We're not England.
We've got apples and we've got Bourbon barrels, so why not?'
"They give the cider just a hint
of whiskey flavor, which was unnerving to me in the beginning, but everybody
said it tasted good, so I went with it. That cider just won a medal
at a cider competition in Michigan."
Something sounds familiar about that.
It brings to mind all those chefs who immersed themselves in French
cuisine during the '70s and then created California cuisine in the '80s.
Perhaps our cider makers will pass through their apprenticeships and
create something of their own -- West Coast-style cider.
Spritzy or still, it's a sipping showdown
With tiny productions, West Coast ciders
can be hard to find. The Times tasting panel -- all confessed novices
at tasting cider -- met last week to evaluate those available in local
stores or online -- plus one from Canada.
The panel's favorite traditional-style
cider was the impressive Wandering Aengus semi-dry. The real standout,
though, was the lone Canadian entry -- an "ice cider" from
Quebec. Joining me on the panel were staff writer Corie Brown and food
editor Leslie Brenner. The ciders are listed in order of the panel's
preference.
La Face Cachee de la Pomme Neige, Cidre de Glace
The apple equivalent of an ice wine.
Amber color, with a luscious fruit nose, lots of body, and complex,
Sauternes-like flavor. About $30 (375 ml).
Wandering Aengus Semi-Dry Cider
Butter yellow; ripe apple aroma, complex
tarte Tatin flavor and slight spritz. Available at http://www.wanderingaengus.com . $12 ( 750 ml) plus shipping.
Ford Farms Cyderworks Oregon Dry Sparkling Hard Cider 2003
Pale, cloudy, frothy lemon yellow, with
a sweet apple aroma and bracing acid; a tad medicinal. Available at http://www.cyderworks.com , about $14 (750 ml) plus shipping.
Ace Fermented Apple Cider
Fresh apple taste, simple, and more tart
than sweet, slight spritz. Widely available at wine shops. About $3
(22 ounces).
Westcott Bay Orchards Vintage Cider
Baked apple aroma, bone-dry, frothy,
not much depth. Available at http://www.rockisland.com
K Draft. Pretty apple nose, off-dry,
slight, thin. About $8 for a six-pack.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Los Angeles Times