POUR WITH PRIDE
Cider’s resurgence, rich history to be celebrated at Hub event
David Dolginow has a name for every tree that supplies apples for his cider.
Sawmill is named after the rural Vermont road where it was found. Animal Farm is named for its location on the tiny cow farm of Diane St. Clair, whose coveted supply of handmade butter is sought by the top chefs in the country. Another tree is named Deer Snacks, for the reputation it earned from local hunters, who appreciated the helpfulness of its juicy red bait.
Dolginow is co-founder of Shacksbury Cider, which began in 2013 in Vermont's Champlain Valley. Its careful commitment to the indigenous art of cider-making is emblematic of the larger energy powering its corner of the beverage industry, a fruit-based counterpart to the craft beer movement. Shacksbury has so far foraged wild apples from more than 150 trees found in the forests of the Green Mountain State to create its award-winning cider. And it has selected a dozen apple varieties to propagate on its own 1,000-tree “Lost Apple Orchard,” thereby salvaging native New England apples that could otherwise be lost.
“We live in a region of the world that is world class for growing apples,” Dolginow said. “There's a great cultural and agricultural history of apples and cider-making in New England.”
The first New England Cider Week, which runs Oct. 24-30, aims to preserve that history, celebrate the present artisan cider scene and foster its future. The week's founder, Jackson Cannon, a nation-
ally known beverage expert and veteran bar guru at several top Boston restaurants, says he was inspired to start the series to honor an important and highly drinkable element of New England heritage.
“Cider really is our regional drink,” Cannon said. He hopes that someday cider will be as culturally synonymous with Boston as lobster rolls and clam chowder. After all, we are home to the Roxbury Russet, believed to be the oldest American apple variety. And New England cider was an everyday staple of Colonial-era diets — even if today thirsty folks are more apt to crack open a beer.
But take a new generation of passionate purveyors, add an era of consumer emphasis on locally made food and drink, and toss in increased demand for gluten-free products: You have the recipe for a cider renaissance.
“You're seeing all these smaller producers who are really willing to invest their heart, soul and career in this,” Cannon said.
New England Cider Week will bring together a few of those producers for special events at Cannonconnected venues. There will be carnival games and festive, flannel-appropriate music during a party at The Hawthorne, the Kenmore Square cocktail lounge that Cannon owns. An applecentric cider brunch will be hosted at Les Sablons, the new Harvard Square hot spot where he devised the drinks. And all the locations in these restaurants' larger family, including Seaport spot Row 34 and Watertown eatery Branch Line, will pour out an exclusive custom cider developed in collaboration with Eden Specialty Ciders of Newport, Vt., by the Canadian border.
“Heritage cider is a category that people are getting much more knowledgeable about,” said Eleanor Leger, Eden cofounder and board member of the U.S. Association of Cider Makers. She and her husband, Albert, started off in 2007 by making ice cider, a still-newish form of dessert cider, originated in Quebec, that is made from apples frozen in the outdoors during those wild northern winters. Eden was one of the first American cideries licensed by the government to make ice cider in the States. Now Eden produces a few cider styles while adhering to many of the criteria popular among New England's artisan makers, particularly the use of naturally organic, native heirloom apples and painstaking, time-consuming production techniques that employ minimal manipulation.
The methods of boutique local producers yield cider styles as individualized as wines, with flavor profiles more complex than the cloyingly sweet beverages often popularized by large brands. They also support small orchards and farmers, and preserve a regional tradition.
“Cider is a fundamental part of our culture in New England,” said Soham Bhatt, co-founder of Everett-based Artifact Cider Project. Bhatt, who will participate in a Cider Week panel alongside several other makers, says Artifact's production has exploded since its first, modest 500-gallon run in 2014. Though it has been eclipsed by beer since its Colonial heyday, craft cider demand is rapidly fermenting.
“For a while, it seemed lost to time,” Bhatt said. “But I think with the shift toward local, culturally authentic products, it's cider's turn now.”