First things first: most of this article is going to be very positive. So let’s kick things off with my now-Canutian grumble – I am utterly fed up with the Cider Salon not providing spittoons.

I mentioned it last year. I mentioned it the year before. I brought it up on twitter in 2019 when even fewer folk paid attention to what I had to say on the subject of cider. And I dare say, next year, here I shall be, up to my knees in the tide, bringing it up again.

Let’s get something straight: handing out disposable cups and plonking six or seven buckets around a large venue does not count. My hands are full of glass and pen and leaflet and notebook already without also juggling an increasingly gopping coffee cup of my own expectoration. I do not wish to yo-yo between stall and twenty-metres-away-bucket with every fresh expression. And I do not want to spit from on high into a splashy open bucket on the floor, nor to bend over it to achieve shorter range. I dare say, in a room predominantly filled with men, that women and non-binary people would feel even less comfortable doing so.

Spittoons, at large-scale tasting events, which is what the Cider Salon is, are fundamental safety equipment. I will die on this hill. I don’t care that cider is less alcoholic than wine or spirits, and I don’t for a moment accept the idea that the comparative shortness of the event is an effective deterrent to people overdoing it. (If anything it makes people drink in more of a rush – I’d dearly like the Salon to extend its hours, but that’s a different gripe, and a somewhat greedier one).

Organisers of events such as these have a duty of care both to ticket holders and exhibitors. It is a crowded room in which unlimited free tasters of alcohol are being given out. If measures are not taken – spittoons, drinking water (something else the Salon doesn’t really provide), systems for the reporting of harassment – there is a risk of harm being done, however far this may be from the organisers’ intentions.

Every argument I have heard against the spittoon is complete bullshit. ‘Spitting is gross’ – well the stuff that happens when people get wrecked at these events is more so. ‘It disrespects the producer’ – no it doesn’t, what an embarrassing suggestion. ‘You don’t get a full taste’ – even more laughable; a. you do, b. you certainly taste more than you do if you’re already wankered. Worst of all: ‘I want to get my money’s worth.’ This is a tasting event. You have come to taste. It’s not about having a drink, it’s about exploring, safely, with many other people, the marvellous spectrum of cider and perry-related drinks that the Salon exhibits. This is distinct from, say, the Great British Beer Festival, which effectively exists as a giant pub, where the idea is to explore, sure, but to drink normally in thirds, halves or pints, and where there are certainly measures taken against antisocial drunken behaviour. Indeed by the implicit contract of the Cider Salon – that opportunity to taste across aspirational cider’s breadth – it is precisely the availability of spittoons that facilitates getting good value for ticket.

There are other fundamental measures that would assist. Water, as discussed. Availability of crackers – both as palate refreshers and to soak up alcohol. A clear system for reporting negative behaviour – all stuff that falls into basics for events such as these; nothing revolutionary or logistically difficult here. But spittoons sit at the top of my wish list.

It’s not about being po-faced. It’s about keeping people safe and to a less-important extent about allowing people to taste as much as they can, or wish to, without being more affected by alcohol than they possibly want to be. God knows the wine industry is not without its problems, but it is, at least, anathema that a large tasting would go ahead without spittoons. Spirits events, too, have improved in this regard in the last half decade or so (I was grumbling about their relative absence in whisky back in 2017; I’m an old hand at shouting into this particular void). If cider wishes to be taken seriously – and if the Salon exists for any purpose it is precisely to contend that it does and should be – it must follow suit.  

Not least because, once again, the Salon grew as an event this year and deserves to be considered a triumph. It’s a sign of cider’s increasing confidence, and the increasing awareness of its apex quality, that both The Guardian’s Fiona Beckett and JancisRobinson.com‘s Tamlyn Currin were making their way around the tables (I’d be interested in their takes on the spittoon absence, incidentally). The Trinity Centre was once again packed, the roster of brilliant producers had once again swelled and, to my taste, the average standard of cider and perry on offer continues to tack upward.

The downstairs area, for the first time, featured exhibitors, with the venue neatly divided into ‘UK upstairs, international downstairs’, a system that made the Salon a more breathable space than some of the previous editions (especially 2021) have felt. The international producers, incidentally, were on cracking form. Eden are now veterans of the Salon, and Oregon’s Bauman’s, Washington’s Seattle Cider and New York’s Angry Orchard have all previously featured, but to see them all present and joined by a handful of new compatriots as well as cideries from Norway, Hungary and Sweden was a testament to the Salon’s growing ambition and clout.

The UK contingent only featured one debut maker – Fife’s Naughton, whose outstanding traditional methods fit like a glove – but it was clear that producers are generally gaining confidence and ambition when it comes to what they consider their showcase bottlings. Though 2021, the vintage perhaps most on display, seems to have been a less uniformly-brilliant year than 2020, outstanding ciders and perries have been made, with producers who were most rigorous in fruit selection showing particularly well. 

Last year I commented that acidity was an increasing theme in western counties cider. That still holds true, but there seemed to be an increase in overt tannins across the producers I made my way through at this year’s Salon; bolstered perhaps through Yarlington Mill seeming to nudge out Kingston Black as the most showcased variety, and perhaps through 2021 seeming to be (if I can generalise quite a bit) a fairly toothsome and structural vintage on the whole. The wisdom of measured acidity nonetheless remained a constant as, by and large, did the general move in a drier direction. In the early iterations of the Salon it felt as though keeves were the dominant style; as the years have gone by, drier expressions seem to have nudged ahead. Not that there weren’t delicious keeves and sweeter ciders and perries in evidence, their numbers including many of my favourite bottlings of the day. Single varieties continue apace, the argument that they are inherently less good than blends having been (hopefully) largely put to bed. 

Personal favourites? Wilding’s trio rides high in memory; their November Perry 2021 was the best perry I can remember tasting from that producer, and their Peppershells Orchard Blend and 2021 Kingston Black were similarly exceptional – a brilliant showing. I was sorry not to see any perry at the Gould stand, but a fabulous Islay cask dry cider and a bourbon cask-aged Mistelle ‘Pomona’ that would be in the debate for my favourite bottle of the day more than made up for it. Talking of perry, Little Pomona’s new still bottling probably did take my ‘pick of the show’, but was run close by their Brut Rosé which a friend cited as their own ‘man of the match’, and a single variety Yarlington which our Jack enthused over mightily. (Thanks for the steer, Jack!)

I loved the third edition of Nightingale’s Songbird: classic, Chardonnay-esque Egremont Russet, aged in Burgundy and Priorat casks. Great to see Rull Orchards on top form – a tequila cask-aged perry gave me a few conceptual worries until I tasted it and discovered it to be a riot of fruity, oaky fun, whilst their scintillatingly pure, thrilling still Discovery-Foxwhelp blend sits comfortably in my day’s top five.

In a day of brilliant Yarlington Mills, perhaps my favourite was Welsh Mountain’s complex, evocative It’s Alive 2021. I was much taken by an alluringly fruity Blakeney Red from Butford Organics as well as the new traditional method Thorn from Gregg’s Pit and, especially, their tropical, walk-in-a-summer-greenhouse 2022 blend of Blakeney, Brandy and Winnal’s Longdon. The American showing was an embarrassment of standouts, but the Presque Isle Kingston Black and Farmhouse Blend and the Albermarle traditional method Harrison and Virginia Hewe’s Crab single varieties just about topped my personal charts, along with the metronomically-astounding ice ciders from Eden – this year a lime marmalade-scented heirloom blend, a Northern Spy that was pure apple pie and the 2014 iteration of their long barrel-aged Falstaff blend, a rhapsody of rancio, apple balsamic and dried fruits that I have long-since run out of superlatives for. I also adored the vibrant, textural citrus of Riley’s Cider’s Long Lost Apples, a blend of 500 apple varieties from a British Colombian orchard. Special mention to the fascinating trio of single variety McIntoshes, c/o Riley’s, Seattle and Bauman’s, and to the latter producer’s beguiling, pure and racy red-fleshed Mountain Rose.

As I wrote last year, these shows are about swiftly-made impressions rather than in-depth tasting notes. Who knows whether my favourites on the day would be my favourites in the odd, focussed conditions of a proper review, or the natural setting of a glass enjoyed at leisure with friends. And, as usual, picking favourites rather overlooks the general standard of excellence set by virtually every producer in attendance. (Though a few faulty bottles had slipped through – very much the exceptions, and I’m admittedly nit-picking, but worth mentioning in the interest of balance, this being high-end cider and perry’s flagship event.)

I left the afterparty (the best to date in my opinion, with thanks to brilliant hosts Wiper & True and organisers Burum Collective) full of renewed excitement for aspirational cider and perry, not merely in terms of ‘potential’, but in terms of what the category is already putting out and showing itself capable of. I hope that Fiona and Tamlyn left the Cider Salon with similar impressions, and that those more-august writers will publish the favourable reports this excellent category deserves. The Salon really is a showcase for the best of cider and perrymaking, both in the UK and – increasingly – abroad, and I can’t wait to attend again next year and see the fresh steps forward that these drinks have made.