The harvest was in full swing when I talked to David Llewellyn, who grows apples and makes cider, cider vinegar and apple juice in Lusk, Co Dublin. He grows grapes and makes wine too. The apple crop is large and healthy according to Llewellyn. Olan McNeece of Dan Kelly’s in the Boyne Valley agrees. “We have a large crop, as does pretty much everywhere else including the UK and Europe. It’s not great for prices, but that is the nature of our business.”
Cider makers have never had it easy in Ireland, even though we are among the largest consumers of cider in the world. “The mass market ciders are very, very sweet,” McNeece says, “and Irish people like it. Most craft cider is not nearly as sweet. The Irish palate hasn’t developed the way it has in the UK, France and other countries.”
Ireland now has a dozen or more craft cider makers, mostly growers who turned to making cider when the market for home-grown apples collapsed. Some see an increased interest in Irish apples recently, with a few of the major retailers offering them. There is no reason, however, why we can’t rely exclusively on our own produce instead of importing from afar. The counties of Armagh, Kilkenny and Tipperary are the counties best known for apple-growing, but the entire country has the perfect climate.
The same goes for cider-making. Larger cider producers import concentrated grape juice, ferment it to 12 per cent abv and then add water, colouring and flavourings. It’s not easy to compete against that. “Business is fine,” Helen Troughton of the Armagh Cider Company tells me, “but we have to instil in the public that cider is actually wine. Artisan ciders like ours are made from apple juice but the process is actually the same as wine. It takes up to a year to make cider, the longer the better; we feel it enhances the flavour, but it costs money. We only use our own apples and add nothing else. In the UK, the law stipulates a minimum of 33 per cent apple juice. I’d like no concentrate,” says Troughton. “We are 99 per cent apple juice, and I’d love the public to realise that there is a difference.”
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Daniel Emerson of Stonewell Cider agrees. “It is a totally different manufacturing process. They are different products. Ours are 100 per cent fresh juice, and that is more expensive.”
However, Troughton believes Bulmers and others have been positive for the industry, using their advertising budget to bring cider to a much larger audience. “Our job is to get to people to try ours and the other craft producers too. We are all different,” she says.
Typically, a producer will make one off-dry to medium-dry cider, and one dry. Then there will be ciders flavoured with flowers and other fruits and berries, as well as honey. Recently, a handful of producers have released apple brandy too.
[ Four Irish craft ciders to try with your dinner, or on their ownOpens in new window ]
A visit to Armagh during the flowering season is a wonderful sight, with a carpet of white and pink blossom covering the rolling hillsides. Apples have been grown here for centuries. There are now a number of cider producers, including MacIvors, Tempted, Long Meadow, Kilmegan and others.
Troughton’s produced its first cider in 2006. “We were the first in Armagh to make it since 1953,” says Helen Troughton. “We use Armagh Bramleys to make a light cider with some eating and cider apples too. We also sell the Bramley apples to local food producers like Chapman Foods, who use it for their pie fillings.”
The Armagh Cider Company bottles cider under the Carsons and Maddens Mellow label and under Troughtons in the Republic. There are also naturally flavoured ciders under the Doyles brand and a range of mixers and lemonade under the Troughtons name, made using their own spring water. All of this is supplemented by their other businesses – sports horse breeding and making rosettes. The easiest way to try the ciders might be to go down to your local Aldi; the company has supplied the chain’s three Armagh Craft Ciders since 2016. Alternatively, it runs award-winning tours which can be booked online.
The McNeece family has a 200-acre farm in the Boyne Valley, Co Louth, with 80 acres under apple. The principal variety is Bramley, and most of the apples are sold as fruit to retailers. Dan Kelly’s cider was Olan McNeece’s idea.
“We always made some cider for home consumption through the years. I wanted to try it out, but my father was very discouraging. It was a different environment then,” McNeece says. “But we had the fruit, the apples, and we could see what was happening with craft beer. People were curious; a lot of choice had gone out of the market, and people wanted more choice. The crash helped in some ways because people became more discerning. They stopped going out, but drank better. Attitudes changed.
“It’s been fun, it’s a family business, and the apple side has to take precedence. I do the ciders myself. It’s a nice sector, with nice people. We do some export, which means you get to travel. You get a sense of pride to see your product on a shelf in Italy or Spain. Over there, people value something different that they can’t get locally. But it’s a competitive sector with a lot of new entrants. We are going to do single-variety ciders this year and bottle-conditioned too – traditional methods that I enjoy making, but I know it’s going to be difficult to sell.”
Stonewell Cider in Cork is slightly different from the other producers, as its husband-and-wife owners Daniel Emerson and French woman Géraldine Javoy didn’t come to cider through growing apples. In fact, even though they now have a small orchard, they buy most of their apples from other growers. It is not a secret; they are featured on their website, and include Con Traas, another cider maker.
However, they are among the most innovative producers, with a range of very good apple-based drinks. As well as a core range of medium-dry, dry and alcohol-free, they offer seasonal ciders, including one with rhubarb, and another, nettles. Past once-off ciders included cucumber and passionfruit. A sister company called Nohoval, run by Javoy, makes a range of interesting drinks, all based on apples, including a very popular Tawny and an oak-aged apple wine.
“Craft cider is growing slowly, although there are some who are finding the market more challenging,“ Emerson says. ”We have been growing strongly over the last two years, which is great given the climate. Fingers crossed it will continue.
“The argument that we are drinking less but better is definitely true. It is a trend for younger people, and that is good for us. People are concerned about the quality of what they are drinking. One of the biggest clouds is the shakeout of the craft sector that is going on. We’ve got to maintain a presence, and stay in the game. It is key to support the farmers who grow the apples. If orchards are ripped up, there is a five-year wait to get a crop if you replant.”
Stonewell exports to seven countries including the US (“We like a challenge,” says Emerson), and are looking to expand.
“Our real goal is to increase penetration in our existing markets.”
Two new projects are in train. Earlier this year, Stonewell released an apple brandy, which Emerson describes as “a huge investment”. “But I have always been a huge fan of Calvados. A 10-year-old Calvados is surreal.”
Stonewell began distilling in 2018. The second project is Stonewell Reserve, made by co-fermenting apples with pinot noir grapes purchased from Javoy’s family in the Loire valley.
David Llewelyn is one of the pioneers of Irish wine-making. Cider is less important to him, but he is certainly not short of opinions. “Look, my tag line, my slogan is ‘I’m Ireland’s smallest cider maker’. It’s in a couple of restaurants, direct from me, or a limited number of retailers. Most Irish people don’t know what cider is. There are really only two or three good producers. For me, cider is wine made from apples and only apples. Really, the people who like my cider tend not to be Irish and usually come from places where cider is real - like parts of Spain, France, the UK and Germany, or Irish who have travelled to those countries,” he says.
“There is no distinction on the label, so if you are making the real thing, the consumer cannot tell the difference. It makes it difficult for authentic or premium cider producers. I’m in a little corner by myself or with a few others. My bone-dry cider is probably Ireland’s driest cider. I sell it for €15 a bottle, I don’t sell a lot, but I am happy to supply it to a small group of people who like it. Now I have a website, it will include my perry and cider under the Lusca label.”
The craft cider producers are trying to bring a legal definition for cider both at national and European level. In the meantime, it is up to the consumer to work out which ciders are genuine craft products and which are not.
In addition to those mentioned, look out for Highbank, Viking Irish Drinks, Cockagee, Craigie’s, Longueville House, Killahora and Con’s. All are artisan producers, and their ciders are well worth seeking out online or in your local off-licence. Three producers – Llewelyn, The Cider Mill in Slane and Killahora in Cork – also make a very good perry, a sparkling drink made from pears.
