Is Cider a Wine?

 

  I recently read an interesting article in Malus Magazine claiming cider is NOT wine, and to think so is detrimental to cider's development. Point taken, sort of. 

  I couldn't agree more about the limitations the "wine" label brings to consumer minds. I especially agree with the author that "cider" liberates producers more than wine does due to the general confusion of where cider is as a category (she used the word "anarchy" to describe this current state), but the author primarily focused on man-made distinctions between cider and wine (words, categories, and market impressions), when, in the end, the two are fundamentally 99% similar. The botanical difference between trees and vines is an interesting one, and worthy of further dissection, but as a drink producer I approach both wine and cider without any real difference. Sure, you can argue the minutia of their differences -- the acids, sugars, esters, etc. -- but there is something far greater that unifies the two drinks: the goal. With both wine and cider, we want to represent the land, we "step back" and let Nature do its thing (rather than taking charge with, for instance: brewing, distilling, or "cheffing" the ingredients.)   

  Even if you want to focus on just the market distinctions (entirely manmade distinctions) and you want to praise cider for i's liberties there; the fact is, a wine maker could be just as free to explore the grape. A wine maker could, for instance, allow for true-terroir* (instead of soil-amended terroir); They could allow for the natural gene expression of grapes; Or they could explore the vine's feral process and "real-world" acclimation. These are issues that some of us are free to explore with cider but no one's stopping a wine maker from doing the same. 

  Plus, wine makers are free to explore co-fermentations (with different fruit) and free to get weird with lab-concoctions too (keaving, "flaw" additions, etc.) as a cider-maker does. Yes, the winemaker would have to forgo the established wine-market lingo (a decision that'd severely limit them economically), but, again, these are only man-made limitations. The only real difference between cider and wine comes down to the nature of the apple versus the grape, which again, share the grander goal of location expression.   

   Ultimately, to label anything is a man-made invention. Words represent our best effort to encapsulate reality for the purpose of communication. They're pods of meaning but they're an artifice, they don't actually embody the reality they're supposedly attached to (don't make me bring up Duchamp or Magritte's Key of Dreams.) Applied to "cider" and "wine", the definitions are literally different but both spark conversations about our place in Nature, our understanding of it, and our ability to MANipulate it to serve our desires. At best, we'll put words to these things and hope the person we're talking to is on the same page, but in the end, no one can definitively understand another's reality. 

  Let's not obsess on linguistics or philosophically, the Western understanding of reality, but let's just agree that we could literally (and I mean literally) interchange "cider" and "wine" if we want to. Neither word exists in Nature, but we're putting them there and appropriately arguing the meaning. Like with any word, its a tug-of-war, and professional marketing is free to MANipulate too. It can be frustrating, but it could also be liberating. I prefer to revel in the freedoms, and if possible, fight for more!  

  So, to sum up my opinion: Both cider and wine have the capacity to explore man-made inventions but more importantly, they could be united by the larger goal of allowing Nature to express itself. I say, follow this rabbit and don't limit oneself by the artifice of capsules or classifications. Lable it "cider" or "wine", I don't care, because to me, they're interchangeable. Just be honest about additions or MANipulations (ask producers to disclose this) but in the end, each of us has the responsibility of direct experience. We create our own meaning of life, which is a good thing, and we should be on guard for when artifice substitutes for it.  

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 BTW, I believe I've done exactly what the Malus author is advocating for. More than most, I've taken great advantage of the liberties of "cider," as a distinct category. This anarchy steered me to "co-ferment" long before it was even a term; It's allowed me to be a "natural" producer ("natural wine" was more fringe back then); and it's allowed me to bottle "pet-nat" before the word was common in the marketplace (actually, I call my ciders "undisgorged" and not "pet-nat" to skirt the attempt to encapsulate real reality within the box of market reality. Plus, I bottle way later than most pet-nat producers.)
The MOST important freedom "cider" has given me, however, was its complete absence of a "terroir" conversation. This allowed me to explore its depths way (WAY) beyond the parameters of viniculture's encapsulated meaning. My mission, if anything, has been to expose how MANipulated farm environments and species are. (*That's why I use my own term, "locational," believing true terroir is incompatible with soil amendments, sprays and irrigation and cloning. I emphasize this by foraging and separating the locations.)