Recent Vintages

It would seem every other crop year hits a new high or low, with the last two years appearing as extreme as an ECG of a heart attack.
In 2010 the Spring started quickly with blossom in the third/ fourth week of April. A May freeze threatened to destroy the crop but the damage turned out to be nominal. By Harvest, 2010 apples had a long, sunny season and the dry Autumn kept rots to a minimum. I give 2010 an "A".
By contrast, 2011 was a rainy, rainy year with mild temperatures. Constant humidity and morning fogs created a scary situation for vigorous trees. Shoot blight and rot were prevalent. Some grape growers lost their entire crop. By Harvest flooding from two hurricanes added to soil saturation and the apples were visibly larger then normal (similar to 2009.) That's good for farmers selling eating apples by the pound, but that's bad for cider, where we like small, dense, fully ripened apples. I give 2011 a "D".
The recent warm winter made matters worse. Cellar temps speed the fermentation and it was impossible to naturally control residual sweetness. Now, at Spring bottling, I am choosing to blend vintages so that the water-thin 2011's have more body. I would never add sugar, but back-sweetening seems desirable when your back's to the wall. Luckily I have enough 2010 to round-out the bottle.
2012 is off to a similar start to 2010, but with an even earlier blossom predicted. We are all holding our breath, the traditional frost-free date isn't until May 14. And it's been dry- that's never good for Spring. Still, the conditions are in place for an excellent 2012. Perhaps 2012's will sit along side 2010, and 2007 in the basement (that is, if we haven't drank it all.) Cheers.

Cloudy

Are you opposed to sediment at the bottom of your wine, beer or cider bottle? Do you like it clear? That's because if you are old enough to drink, you were born in the 20th century, a 100-year stretch which, coincidentally, nearly destroyed sustainable farming in the name of profit, efficiency and ease. Staying to the point: Cider, wine and beer are living beverages, the yeasts and natural sugars would still be evident in the final drink if this were the 19th century or beyond, and the flavors would be stronger as we would have no need for sterile-filtering and sulfiting. Will we continue being germaphobes, microbe-fearing USDA lemmings willing to sacrifice quality for consistency? Or will we reverse the tide and regain our connection to land, farming, and community- living systems analogous to the living cultures in foods such as yogurt, cheese, and rightfully: cider, wine and beer. You know my vote.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Recently a largish U.S. hard cider producer sold-out to a huge beer company which wanted in on cider's impressive numbers and booming charts. I've heard several voices from within the cider community expressing displeasure, yet for me, I don't think the news is even relevant for us "farm cider" producers. That product the beer company inherited is just one of many unappealing artificially-carbonated, sugar-sweetened, and sterile-filtered concoctions that have long since given "hard cider" its reputation. We, on the other hand, are "farm cider", and as farmers our preference is to keep things simple and real. We are not prone to conceptual speculation and we are not driven by the need for money, acclaim, or trend participation. Hard cider is a distant third because it thrives in our folksy world, and few other places. I suspect that that big beer company is going to take a bath on their miscalculation.

In the end, taste-driven and moral-oriented customers (it's them driving cider back into the spotlight, not savvy farmers!) want face-to-face contact and accountability. More importantly, they want location. They do not want some company in a warehouse using billions apples from everywhere mixed like beef in a McDonalds hamburger. They want a single, real farm. Predictably, the big producers will play-up the farm image like Cracker Barrel, and of course, they will do what Sam Adams does and sell us an imaginary character, the artisan toiling away at his hand-crafted product, but 21st century consumers are not that easily fooled. They have taste. Just as with wine, the high-end consumers will seek-out farms, while the big companies will be left the dregs in the cheap market.