Just over two weeks ago, I attended the Fine Cider Company’s ‘Spring Tasting’ for trade and press at Brunswick House in Vauxhall. As my partner and I strolled towards the venue, a restaurant in a Georgian house marooned somewhat comically among brand-new high-rises and large roads, we felt like we were approaching a time capsule, a portal to another world that no one else could see. Once inside, we were enveloped by consciously whimsical interior design: art deco posters, vintage mirrors, chandeliers and myriad plants hanging from the ceiling. Felix Nash, maestro of Fine Cider Company, sat ready to welcome us with Laurie the Bedlington Whippet (yes, after Laurie Lee) nuzzled on his lap. Then all we had to do was check our coats, grab a tasting glass, and get to it.

Fine Cider Company has been around for 10 years now and has done much to promote fine cider in the London restaurant scene and beyond, including organising the London Cider Salon that debuted last year at Tate Modern (this year’s is May 11!). The Company has an impressive line-up on its distributary books, including some cornerstones of the fine cider world like Oliver’s and Little Pomona. New kids on the block are represented too: Townsends Farm from Herefordshire, who started out making beautifully be-labeled apple juice but forayed into cider a few years ago, are one example.

Eight cider makers in total were present at the event. To give a rather anecdotal flavour of the myriad drinks on offer to the bar and restaurant owners and other food and drinks professionals who attended — now available to all at the Fine Cider Company website — I shall record a product that stands out to me from each producer (having tasted pretty much the whole range at each stall!).

Find & Foster (Devon)

I’ve followed Polly and Mat Hilton’s fascinating operation for a while, so I greatly enjoyed trying something a little bit different from them: the Method Untraditional that aims to remove as many ‘un-natural’ steps from the process as possible. With this traditional method cider, the first fermentation was conducted with natural yeasts as usual, but the dosage was done with home-made ice cider for the first time, and the secondary fermentation was started with the yeast that had naturally settled during earlier fermentation, rather than with the usual champagne yeast. These small changes bring transformative results, producing a complex cider that smelled enticingly sweet and apple-y but tasted rustic (in a good way!) with bright, slightly acetic notes and robust, darker woodland tannins. This cider will be released later in the year; it was great to get a taste of what lies ahead.

Little Pomona (Herefordshire)

Is there anything lil Pomona can’t do? Cider maker Laurence Cocking had a cracking line-up on show as usual, but one drink that stands out to me is a new addition to the To Boldly Go series, which aims to ‘broaden [the] horizons of perry making’: The Metamorphosis 2022. I’ve long wondered why perry pears aren’t used as the base of co-ferments more often, as cider apples are, so I was quite excited to try my first pear-and-wine grape co-ferment. It was fresh, juicy, and very ‘green’ in its notes — melon, fresh hops, pollen, gooseberry. To Boldly Go into warmer evenings, I say!

Naughton Cider Co. (Fife, Scotland)

One of several makers at the festival that focus on producing crisp, dessert fruit-forward, sparkling wine-like ciders, Naughton intrigued me with its Traditional Method Brut Vintage 2020, which had spent 2.5 years on the lees. The blend of Cox and Bramley had been lent good body by the use of oak aging — it’s not just tannin that can give texture!

Oliver’s (Herefordshire)

Among Tom Oliver’s many excellent offerings, The Next Big Thing RAW 2022 stuck in my mind: I can’t think that I’ve ever had such an intriguing combination of creamy, gently sweet, peachy flavours followed by brusk, stemmy tannin. And that pale-pink unfiltered opacity — delightful! Tom also deserves a special mention for the best product name (it was a fine perry, too): ‘Nittiness and Whizz’! It’s named for Silas Taylor’s 1663 description of cider in a letter to the Royal Society, as quoted by James Crowden.

Starvecrow Cider (Sussex)

Starvecrow’s Ben Walgate is a natural winemaker by day job and enjoys experimenting with methods and barrels. His cherry cider made with carbonic maceration, aptly named Cherry Carbo, won me over with its joyously vibrant hue and fresh and punchy sour cherry flavours.

Townsend Farm (Herefordshire)

Don’t you feel sorry for the people who think apple juice is by necessity a clear, somewhat sickly, monotonously flavoured liquid procured from the grocery store? People like Jamie Hall at Townsend Farm are proof that this has never been and need never be the case. Among his line-up of single-variety apple juices and ciders, I particularly remember the Jonagold juice: it was almost buttery in its full texture and sweetness and tasted like what banana juice might if it had much-needed tang. Yum.

Two Orchards (Sussex)

I’d tried Two Orchards’ mainstay outturns before, but I was most interested in their single barrel series this time around. For example, this may have been the first time I’ve had a Flor-aged cider (Single Barrel Flor 2022). As a sherry aficionada, this is very exciting to me.

Wilding

Sam Leach’s rather elegant line-up of ciders and perries notwithstanding, I was enchanted by his Orchard Spirit: even more so than the delicious ‘Malus’ Pomona, I found this eau de vie to have incredible creaminess and texture, with feelings of sweetness and tannin mysteriously present post-distillation. There’s much exciting cider distillate to explore outside the Calvados region!

It’s not just the products on offer that delight at such tasting events: it’s the people. You get to know them quickly, as the fine cider world is small. And when you’re talking to the person, sometimes the only person, who actually makes the cider and/or perry, you have very different conversations than with the brand representatives or similar you often get at larger fairs or in larger industries.

Part and parcel of this small world are the openness and humility of its dialogues. To give just a few examples, one producer readily told me that they have ‘almost no interest in making single variety cider’, while another admitted freely that ‘clean flavours’ are the key focus of their production (both potentially quite surprising statements). Another asked me — and I am not a professional maker by any means — for ideas about what to do with their perry pears. Coincidentally, I’d just come from a conversation about the historical uses of perry pears in different regions with another maker.

Of course, you don’t have to be eligible to attend a trade and press tasting to experience such a familiar atmosphere and wealth of learning opportunities. For example, Bristol’s Cider Salon, where I have made many of my cider connections, is an annual public event attended by a slew of producers from the UK, the US, and further afield. In the airy halls of a converted early 19th-century church, the makers stand around small tables, enticing you in with a range of open bottles. You never get the feeling that you’re overtly being sold anything — they’re just happy to chat and share.

And you? You taste, you spittoon judiciously (assuming spittoons are provided), you ask questions, you get increasingly jolly and frantic as a too-short few hours draws to a close, you try to keep a list of everything you want to buy later, and, if lucky, you look forward to a convivial afterparty nearby. It’s wonderful.

In case you’re wondering, the Bristol Cider Salon is on June 29th this year. And no, they do not sponsor me. It’s just that the love of good cider and perry is infectious. You know, I think it might really be the next big thing.