Jolly juice

Neither as strong as wine nor as filling as beer, cider should be the perfect warm weather drink. Pity what’s commercially available in South Africa is so ordinary. By Christian Eedes.

 

To drink cider out of a traditional ceramic cup in Brittany, France, is to discover just how wonderfully thirst-quenching this beverage made from fermented apple juice is. You’d think it would be ideally suited to sunny South Africa, and yet big-brand versions are a relatively recent phenomenon here: liquor company Distell only launched Hunter’s Gold as an alternative to beer in 1988 and Savanna Dry followed in 1996.

Officially, ciders fall in the ready to drink (RTD) category or what’s colloquially known as alcopops. This is a fast-growing sector of the market with some 343.5 million litres sold in the 12-month period to the end of June 2008, up 48% on three years previously. Biggest RTD is South African Breweries brand Redd’s, a “fruitflavoured malt beverage”, but then comes Hunter’s in second spot and Savanna in fourth.

The tasting
WINE magazine was curious to see how the commercially available ciders stacked up against each other, and undertook to do a blind tasting. The panel consisted of Jake Easton, who makes cider as well as wine under the Lismore label at his property near Greyton in the southern Cape; Karl Lambour, winemaker at Constantia Glen and regular WINE panel member; André le Roux, experienced wine- and cidermaker; Mark Stanford, Elgin apple farmer and part-time cider maker; and me.

As with wine, the three most important aspects to consider when judging cider are appearance, aroma and flavour. We went further and applied a 50-point scale which took into account appearance, colour, aroma, sweetness, tartness, ratio of sugar to acid, flavour, body, bitterness and overall impression.

By far the biggest misgiving the panel had about the line-up was just how bland most examples were. There was lots of debate about what apples make good cider, the upshot being that the best ciders require a mix of varieties to ensure a complex taste profile. The speculation was that, in most instances, inferior varieties or base materials are being used, resulting in an undistinguished end product. There is little regulation as to what constitutes a cider in South Africa and it is clear that the quality of the category suffers as a consequence.

To prevent the mass market offerings from becoming utterly undrinkable, it appears that the manufacturers use all manner of additives – there were many that were overtly sweet, sugar no doubt having been included to lend some sort of body, while the panel also discerned artificial flavours of cinnamon and ginger.

All the ciders under assessment were sparkling. However, while the best of France are naturally bubbly after undergoing secondary fermentation in bottle, South African ciders (bar that from Lismore) are injected with carbon dioxide. How a cider comes to be sparkling can have a major impact on how it drinks: when the bubbles are artificially introduced, these tend to be coarse and much less persistent.

The three most highly ranked ciders under review were all made by independent operators. Best overall was the Windermere, a cider made by panellists Le Roux and Stanford, and all the more remarkable in that it dated from the 1998 vintage. Sadly, it was a short-lived brand, only around from 1996 to 1998, Stanford explaining that he had struggled with distribution and marketing. He continues to be involved in the production of cider for sale under the labels of others, and hopes to resurrect Windermere next year.

James Mitchell’s Gone Fishing is a brand that sees Stanford making cider in conjunction with Flagstone winemaker Bruce Jack, with high-profile consultant chef Pete Goffe-Wood acting as agent. Meanwhile, Lismore has former Hollywood executive Jake Easton attempting to recreate the cider he fell in love with during time in Normandy, France.

Another handcrafted offering was the bottom-ranked Red Stone Pure Apple Cider made from apples grown in the eastern Free State region of Maluti – it proved to be a rather quirky number, with the panel suggesting that if those behind it are just a little bit more rigorous in their production methods, future releases might well be worth seeking out ahead of the homogenised stuff that is generally available.

CIDER APPLES EXPLAINED
Cider apples can be classified into four broad groups, namely: 1) sweets which are high in sugar and encourage fermentation 2) sharps which are high in acidity and add “bite” to the cider 3) bittersweets which are high in sugar but also contain raised levels of tannin 4) bittersharps which are high in both tannins and fruit acids

1ST. WINDERMERE PURE APPLE CIDER
6% ABV
Discontinued (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 33.4
Straw yellow. Shy nose. Dry and elegant. Not very intensely flavoured but balanced and refreshing.

2ND. JAMES MITCHELL’S GONE FISHING
5.8% ABV
R20 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 33.2
Dark yellow. Muted nose. Oxidative on palate. Finish is refreshingly dry.

3RD. LISMORE CIDRE FRANÇAIS 100% SEC ET
PÉTILLANT NATUREL
7.2% ABV
Farm price: R60 (750ml)
Panel’s average score: 31.4
Pale gold in colour. Subtle whiff of apple that follows through to the palate. Elegant and very dry.

4TH. HUNTERS EXTRA DRY
5.5% ABV
R5.88 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 29.0
Pale gold in colour. Appealing apple aroma on the nose. Medium bodied. Slightly artificial.

5TH. SAVANNA DRY
6% ABV R6.82 (340ml) Panel’s average score: 28.6 Golden in colour. Fragrant nose with a hint of ginger. Medium bodied and very dry, but with a slightly artificial quality.
6TH. HUNTERS EXTRA MATURED EXPORT 6% ABV
R5.88 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 26.4
Burnt orange in colour. Baked apple and ginger on the nose. Bland on the palate with a coarse bubble.

7TH. FOUNDRY PREMIUM CIDER
5.5% ABV
R6.81 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 26.2
Bright gold. The nose shows nutty, apple-core notes. The palate appears developed, oxidised.

7TH. HUNTERS PURE GOLD
4.5% ABV R5.88 (340ml) Panel’s average score: 26.2 Dark gold in colour. Very ripe apples and ginger on the nose. Sweet and full on the palate. Tangy acid.

9TH. SAVANNA LIGHT
3% ABV
R6.65 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 25.8
Bright gold in colour. Appealing nose. Very bland on the palate. Coarse bubble. Lacks acid. Insipid.

10TH. BURCHELL PREMIUM CIDER
(WOODMILL CIDER CO)
6.3% ABV
R7.85 (330ml)
Panel’s average score: 25.6
Burnt orange in colour. Shy nose. Bland on the palate with a coarse bubble.

11TH. RED STONE PURE APPLE CIDER
4.5% ABV
R10 (340ml)
Panel’s average score: 23.0
Very pale in colour. Nondescript nose. Light bodied and slightly dirty on the palate. Fresh acidity.

CONTACT DETAILS FOR
BOUTIQUE PRODUCERS
James Mitchell’s Gone Fishing
Alchemy Workshop, 5 London Road, Salt River,
Tel 021 448 8524, orders@realcider.co.za

Lismore Cidre Français 100%
Sec et Pétillant Naturel
Tel 028 254 9848, wine@lismore.co.za,
www.lismore.co.za

Red Stone Pure Apple Cider
Ash Creek Farms, Lushof, Clarens,
Tel 082 901 4700, natalie@ashcreekfarms.com,
www.redstonecider.co.za

Windermere Pure Apple Cider
Tel 021 848 9516, stanwind@mweb.co.za