Berger: Cider for wine lovers

Wine lovers looking for new taste treats would do well to investigate craft ciders, a fast-growing category of beverage that is still well below most people’s radar.

Not Tom Wark, however. Wark is a Napa Valley-based public relations specialist who has worked with wine industry people for years and also has long been a wine blogger. His site, Fermentation, is one of the most active of the wine sites. (http://fermentationwineblog.com/)

I was chatting with Tom the other day about nothing very earth-shaking when the pitch in his voice rose and he asked me what I knew of ciders. I said I knew there were some, and that they varied greatly in style.

Wark, who discovered craft ciders out of sheer curiosity 18 months ago, said that there were literally hundreds of tiny cider producers around North America (including a growing industry in Canada). And that the craft side of the business represents only 5% of all ciders now available.

So we agreed to meet last week and Tom brought with him 10 ciders he said represent an infinitesimal fraction of the styles he thinks mark the next wave of interest in American beverage consumption.

“Ciders have traditionally appealed to beer drinkers,” he said, “but the majority of ciders you’ll see around are from the giants -- Miller, Coors, Stella [Artois] - and the one that’s popular with some people, Angry Orchard, is made by Boston,” the Sam Adams producer, he said.

“But almost all of these are pretty sweet,” said Wark, who then opened a bottle of cider from Eve’s Cidery in Van Etten, N.Y. It was bone dry and fascinating.

What I learned about cider in the next two hours was far more than I can impart in this space, but Wark is now one of the nation’s real experts in the topic, having studied it purely as a hobby since late 2013.

And in that time, visiting dozens of cider makers, he says he has yet to find much journalistic interest by anyone in the topic, except his. He said he was usually the first person to take notes when tasting ciders at producers’ tables.

The result is Tom’s new website, the Cider Journal (ciderjournal.com), which is a not-yet-for-profit venture that has loads of information about cider and where it is headed. (Technically, cider is apple wine.)

One aspect of it that fascinated me is that apple growers are in love with the latest wave of interest in this beverage, which typically has 6% alcohol and rarely ever over 7%. The reason is that cheap apples from overseas have hurt the U.S. apple industry, and the surge in interest in ciders has growers beaming: they have a market for some of their fruit.

In fact, some apple growers are even planting specialty cider apples just for this latest wave of interest in ciders, which seems to be based in cool growing areas where apples thrive.

So we are seeing a lot of cider being made in the Pacific Northwest, northern United States, and notably in the Finger Lakes of New York.

Indeed, the Finger Lakes is hosting Cider Week between Oct. 2 and 11 (okay, it’s more than a week), and has a website, www.ciderweekflx.com.

Cider of the Week: NV Tilted Shed Inclinado, Sonoma County ($21) – Made entirely from Gravenstein apples, this cider has tiny bubbles (almost incidental), a fairly intense apple/earthy aroma with a hint of orange peel. Made to emulate Spanish ciders, with a wild fermentation, it’s not for everyone but is a fascinating look at a new category of brew. The alcohol level is a hefty 7.5%

Sonoma County resident Dan Berger publishes “Vintage Experiences,” a weekly wine newsletter. Write to him at winenut@gmail.com.