Cider goes global

Cider is on the march and much of the impetus is coming from abroad.

Adrian Tierney-Jones reports from the International Exhibition of Quality Cider

Now that cider is seriously hip and ice machines are working overtime, all eyes are looking for the next

sensation and a quick look overseas could provide the answer.

Even though Magners' packaging stresses its link to apples and orchards, its success has undermined cider's longstanding, and often sole, dependency on its quintessential English country image. The healthy countryside image that cider has successfully tapped into has not been weakened, but, as an Irish

cider, Magners' has broadened the market, inspiring Diageo to try a similar cider and Halewood to roll out Maguires.

At the same time, Wetherspoon's has turned to the land of IKEA and brought in Kopparberg from Sweden. Ciders from Belgium and South Africa have also been launched, while ciders from the US and Canada could be next.

For anyone interested in world cider, the northern Spanish city of Gijon was the place to be - the first International Exhibition of Quality Cider was held there last month. Ciders from across the world were on display, including the challenging acidic ones from local

Asturian producers and their neighbours in the Basque province, Apfelweins from Germany and Austria, ciders from California, vintages from Normandy, ice cider from Canada and a bevy of brands from British cider-makers.

The British contingent

The British contingent included representatives from Burrow Hill, Aspall, Thatcher's, Sheppy's, Bollhayes and Gaymer. Henry Chevalier, who runs the family firm Aspall with brother Barry, was busy dispensing glasses of Perronelle's Blush Suffolk, a traditional cider with added blackcurrant syrup.

"This is intended to be served as an aperitif," Chevalier said between pours to interested locals. "It is mainly in bottle, but it will be available in draught at various events throughout the summer." With the growing success of flavoured ciders, the Blush seems to be in the right place at the right time, although Chevalier has been thinking about it for a while.

"It actually took 10 years to bring to fruition," he adds.

On the neighbouring stand, Julian

Temperley from Burrow Hill and John Thatcher from Thatcher's are

dispensing Somerset cider.

"We're all learning," says Temperley, whose daughter, fashion designer Alice Temperley, offers her well-heeled customers his Kingston Black and Somerset Pomona. "We need an event similar to this in the UK, especially as Magners' success has helped cider so much and brought more people into it."

Master cidermaker with Shepton Mallet-based Gaymer Cider Company Robert Cork is also positive about the event. "It is useful for me to see the breadth and depth of cider-making across the world," he says.

"It gives us an opportunity to show English ciders in their best light, and it's impressive to see the innovation in cider-making across the world, with different approaches and flavourings. In the UK we have always kept to the base product of apple juice.; here it is interesting to see people making

other flavours and cider-and-wine mixes, demonstrating cider's adaptability and diversity."

The event was all about cider getting a speciality beer or wine makeover and taking its place on the dinner table. As Magners offers drinkers a route into cider, adventurous souls want to take the journey further - take the latest drink containing fruit, from Belgium. We're not talking about beer, but Jacques Fruit Cider, cropping up on the menu of a gastropub near you. Its target audience is a far cry from the traditional cider market.

Jacques is for lunching ladies

According to Fenella Tyler at Bulmers, also the home of Strongbow and Bulmers Original: "Jacques is mainly for sharing and is pitched at women sharing lunch. It is not sweet in the alcopop way - just sweet in an apple way. It is aspirational and conjures up images of sitting outside European cafés."

Alcopops, or ready-to-drink (RTD) products such as WKD, have played a crucial part in providing a market for cider's resurgence. Cider has a sweetness and palate-friendly identity that ale and lager don't naturally possess. As there is a large group of 20-something drinkers who have majored on RTD brands, it's not rocket science to predict how some of the new ciders will appeal to them.

"The alcopop generation have discovered cider," agrees Simon Russell at the National Association of Cider Makers. "Many will stay with Magners, but some will continue to journey through cider, in the same way as people might have had a wine journey starting with Liebfraumilch and ending up with New World Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

There is also a growing group of people interested in provenance of cider, which helps the single-varietal brands. Five years ago, the big cider companies' promotions were about price; now they are spending more on pushing the virtues of cider, its provenance, which orchard it comes from, and its suitability with food."

Allowing cider to evolve

Over at Gaymer, managing director John Mills confirms the new way of thinking that will allow cider to evolve. "We did some research and discovered that 82% of our cider was drunk by 20% of drinkers," he says. "This was broken down into pint drinkers in the heartland counties of Somerset and Herefordshire, young people coming into the market and what you might call the park-bench crowd.

We discovered three new potential consumer groups: firstly, the extra-cold generation; then we found that we had an Orchard Reserve cider made by our cider makers for themselves and we thought this would be excellent with the cider-with-food market; and thirdly there was Addlestone, our cloudy cider. It had a bit of a scrumpy image and we tidied it up, packaged and copied the Hoegaarden approach. The future of cider is more long-term thinking."

Back at Gijon, the cider exhibition is in full flow and Temperley is extolling the virtues of Canadian ice cider. This is a style of cider that is strong (12%), goes well with food or as an aperitif, can command a premium price and has a sense of style. According to François Pouliot from La Face Cachée de la Pomme near Montreal, this style of cider is made in a very similar way to ice wine.

"We make the juice in December," he says, "and it is left out to freeze, leaving a stronger, more intense cider."

Neige Ice Cider is rich, intense, slightly fiery and absolutely delicious. At the moment it is available in a couple of UK outlets, but a bigger push is planned. It won't sell in big volumes, but will appeal to gastropub cider- drinkers looking for something different with their meal. Whether it's single-orchard, fruit-flavoured or made in the depths of a Canadian winter, cider is going global.