Award-winning cider maker says apple choice is key to a good drop. He tells deputy editor Mark Story there's a raft of good reasons to set up a cidery in Hawke's Bay.
1 Tell us about the specific cider that recently saw you win the title of best Kiwi cider of 2014.
It's the 2013 Paynter's Cider; the first commercial cider I've made. Don't worry, I made about 50 small batches in the shed before I went commercial so I knew what I was doing - sort of.
2 What apples are used in your cider? Are some apple varieties ruled out?
Minneiska, for sugar, acid and a rich flavour. The cooking apple Ballarat, for palate length. Then English cider apples - Kingston Black, Tremlett's Bitter, Broxwood Foxwhelp and Chisel Jersey for bitterness and tannin. I don't have enough of these and the quality will get better from older trees. Good ciders are a little bitter and tannic like red wine - not like the industrial ones that are widely available. Sweet apples like Royal Gala generally make terrible cider.
3 Apples have less nuance than grapes. That is, the same variety of apple tastes the same here as it does grown in Chile - does this make cider's provenance irrelevant?
No, the cider apples do perform differently in NZ. The climate is not like Normandy, Brittany or the English west country from whence they came. Some work; some don't - there's been a lot of trial and too much error. Some of the clones are not 'true to type' either. I think many are hybrids and not even the same apples they use in Europe.
4 Either way, to you, are there advantages of basing a cidery here in Hawke's Bay?
We have exceptional winemaking facilities and talent. Cider is wine - fermented fruit juice. We also have the best apple-growing conditions in the world. So cider is the perfect fit for both wine and apple industries. It also complements well the wonderful food we produce and the superb restaurants to which the tourists flock.
5 Does it cellar well? Talk us through cider's journey in a bottle.
I think cider is most like chardonnay and it ages well in the bottle - if it's made using cider apples. These are very high in polyphenols, which act as a preservative. The oldest cider I've tried was eight years old and incredibly complex. Industrial ciders made from apple juice concentrate don't have the polyphenol content to keep very long. You'll usually see a 'best before' date on them which indicates they're the cheap and cheerful type.