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”?

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Bonny Doon’s labels bare all

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.

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.

I’m just off to usbcider to download a gallon of perry.