At UKCider we believe cider and all alcoholic drinks should be bound by the same ingredients listing laws as any other foodstuffs. This would help to educate the public about what goes into making pure natural cider compared with the adulterated output from many well known brands. According to the industrial cider makers organisations, it’s the wine industry holding this back, so it’s always good news to see some parts of the wine world moving forward with additives labelling.
There is a movement in the wine business that says that all wines should carry ingredient labelling (see what Bonny Doon(1) are doing) just as most other food & drink products do. The question will be, will any consumer understand those ingredients, what they mean, and what the effects are? Are we defending the consumer, or simply confusing them “for their/our own good”?
Spotted yesterday at a trade tasting: Bonny Doon’s labels are now baring all and putting a full “ingredient” list. This is not a legal requirement but more comprehensive labeling for wine is a subject that is in play. While more information on labels is a probably good thing, it would be helpful to have some context about some of lesser-known aspects of winemaking. But maybe that’s what the internet is for, researching things like wine ingredient lists.
Two unrelated provocations cause me to blog about the nature of cider and where it belongs related to other beverages. The first is a resurfacing of the old strategic conflict as to whether it’s worth putting an effort into attempting to reform the soul of real ale organisations in order to push them more in the direction of understanding cider and perry. The second is a call from a wine blogger to widen the conversation about wine into the wider food and drink blogosphere.
So all I want to establish at this point really, is the fact that cider and perry have a lot more in common with wine than they do with beer.
Wine and cider are made from pressed fruit juice which is left to ferment and mature slowly. They are not made from a selection of recipes which always produce an identical product year in year out like beer, which is created from chemically neutralised and adjusted water with added malt sugars and hops flavourings.
Each craft cider or perry maker develops their own blend of fruit and either natural or selected yeast fauna. The vintage will vary from year to year almost as much as the terroir from one cider producing area to another.
The problem is that industrial cider is seen as little more than an alternative brand of lager beer, but this has nothing to do with the full juice craft cider which we promote at ukcider. And the role of cider and perry within the real ale organisations will always be a minority role, and that has proved to be much more of a restriction that it has an opportunity. Real cider and perry need a campaigning organisation of our own, not one tied to the interests of the lucrative beer festival organisers, which will always attract overwhelmingly beer drinkers.
In the meanwhile we would do well to explain , explain and explain again that cider has much more in common with other fruit wines than it does with beer. You need to understand that in order to produce quality craft cider, and to appreciate it too. To that end we would do well to read, learn and associate a lot more with our European counterparts with small vineyards who produce craft grape wines than with the beer drinkers.
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