In cider trading

Traditional cider should, by rights, be a drink whose time has come. With deep rural roots and a wealth of heritage to call on, it ought to appeal to a wide cross-section of modern consumers, from dedicated foodies to all shades of greens.

But it hasn't happened. A mild boom a few years ago has petered out, mainly because of the structure of the industry. The two mass-market producers looked at the more upmarket niches but found they weren't big enough to develop, while most independents were simply too small to exploit the opportunity.

That has left the field to the handful of larger independents that aren't big enough to compete in the mass market but are still looking for areas in which to expand.

These are people who are just as devoted to their traditional cider apple varieties - Foxwhelp, Kingston Black, Brown Snout, Dabinette and scores of others - as any French wine-maker is to the grape varieties of his region. Their ciders are carefully made, fermented slowly at low temperatures, sometimes filtered, almost never pasteurised. The final products can be anything from earthy to elegant, but they are never dull.

Home territory

And yet they have almost no presence at the really serious end of the market. How many West End restaurants include a traditional cider on their wine lists? Even in cider's home territory, hotel dining rooms will boast wines from all over the world but not a good-quality cider from the maker down the road. The organic boom offers the larger independents a way into this market. The organic tag, with all its connotations, carries exactly the right message: rural but not rustic, hand-crafted, natural, even healthy.

Weston's of Much Marcle in Herefordshire, one of the largest independents, got into organic cider three years ago when it produced a supermarket's own-label brand. Its Naturally Strong Organic Cider, a lightly carbonated product of 6.5% abv sold in 500ml bottles, is now one of its fastest-growing brands. Mainly for take-home, it is listed by most supermarket chains, but it has a growing presence in the restaurant trade thanks mainly to the efforts of organic wholesalers such as Vintage Roots of Reading and Vinceremos of Leeds.

For most makers, a Soil Association stamp is a mere dream. For apples, they rely on dozens of small growers, many of them farmers who still crop odd scraps of ancient orchard. These may never have been sprayed with anything more than rain, but it takes a Herculean effort to get the owners to go to the trouble and expense of getting Soil Association certification.

"Many of our growers have been effectively organic for years, but you can't get Soil Association approval retrospectively and we have had to help them through the process," says Weston's sales and marketing director, Roger Jackson. "We knew the procedure, and we were able to help them through it in return for the opportunity to buy their crop. It hasn't been easy, because the Soil Association is very rigorous. But that's an assurance. People know that Soil Association approval isn't handed out to any Tom, Dick or Harry."

And the effort has been worth it, says Jackson. Naturally Strong Organic Cider has given Weston's a national brand leader in a sector that carries a very relevant premium - a premium acknowledged when the brand beat off the challenge of a host of organic beers and wines to win the You Magazine/Soil Association Organic Alcoholic Drink of the Year award.

"We have had a lot of consumers tell us that they don't normally buy cider but decided to give ours a try because it is organic," says Jackson. "Then they carry on buying it because they like it - it's as simple as that."

Weston's, despite its heritage - it is still controlled by members of the family that founded it more than a century ago - is regarded a little sniffily by some smaller makers, who see it as "too commercial". However, Jackson says: "Our ciders are commercial, but they are pleasant and palatable. Retailers demand a certain rate of sale. If other organic ciders are less commercially acceptable, then there will be casualties."

At the other end of Herefordshire is Dunkerton's, a very different enterprise. Founded 18 years ago by Ivor Dunkerton, a former TV producer, and his wife Suzie, a former theatre administrator, as a revivalist enterprise, theirs was the first cider-maker to gain Soil Association certification, and such is their success that the Dunkertons are having to plant a further 30 acres and install several new fermentation tanks.

As well as planting all of its own land - getting rid of a much-loved herd of Red Hereford cattle in the process - Dunkerton's has had to get many of its suppliers Soil Association-certificated by annexing them and taking over the management of their orchards. But it has been worth it, leading to a doubling of demand in recent years. "This niche is very important to us," says Ivor Dunkerton. "We think organic is the future - it's potentially a huge market."

Dunkerton's organic cider is a strong seller, particularly in Waitrose, and is distributed to the restaurant trade in 330ml bottles through Vintage Roots and Vinceremos. But despite growing sales, Dunkerton is chagrined that the consumer is not yet ready for cider in its natural, uncarbonated form. "We tried right from the start to sell natural, uncarbonated cider, but customers were sending it back asking what was wrong with it. Only when we started carbonating it did we become successful. We still sell natural still cider, but for the bigger market it has to be carbonated."

The truth of that is borne out by Sedlescombe, a Sussex vineyard whose organic wines and ciders sell well from its own shop and through selected off-trade retailers, including Waitrose. But co-owner Irma Cook says it has been impossible to find restaurants willing to list its 7.5% abv dry and medium still ciders, which, like wine, come in 750ml bottles.

Pleasantly surprised

"When people try our still cider in our shop, they are always surprised - but pleasantly so," says Cook. "People who say they don't like fizzy cider do like our still cider. We think our cider belongs on wine lists as a lower-alcohol alternative to white wine, but we can't sell at all to the restaurant trade."

Neil Palmer of Vintage Roots tried to sell Dunkerton's still organic cider to the restaurant trade, but found no takers - partly because it comes in litre bottles, but also because customers expect cider to fizz.

Vintage Roots has had success in selling organic ciders to the specialist end of the restaurant trade - vegetarian and whole food restaurants are enthusiastic buyers. But Palmer sees a growing mainstream demand for organic alcoholic drinks, including cider, as consumers seek out products which they feel they can trust.

"People want organic, hand-made products because they are interested in real food and drink," he says. "They want to know what they're eating and drinking, and they want to feel a connection with the maker. They are more and more aware of chemicals. The proof of that is that our business has been growing at 40-50% a year, recently."

Harriet Walsh of Vinceremos agrees. "There is much greater public concern over food issues than there was when we started up 12 or 13 years ago," she says. "Organic certification definitely helps sales these days. People don't want the hidden ingredients, the herbicides and pesticides you don't see listed on the label. I think most people would be horrified if they knew the regime their fruit was subjected to."