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THE DAILY ASTORIAN WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2016
Northwest hard cider-makers see good times ahead
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
If industry insiders are
correct, hard cider produc-
ers in Oregon and Washing-
ton are positioned where craft
beer -makers and ¿ ne wine-
makers were before them.
That is, facing some hur-
dles, but on a roll, collaborat-
ing with each other and poised
to get bigger and better. Hard
cider — the alcoholic cousin of
sweet apple cider — appears to
be favored by the same people
who like a microbrew or bot-
tle of ¿ ne local wine to go with
their good food. They appreci-
ate quality, want to know the
producer’s story and are will-
ing to pay more.
While the Northeast has
much deeper historical roots
to cider making, the Paci¿ c
Northwest is where the action
is, said Ian Merwin, a retired
Cornell University apple
researcher and professor who
grows cider apples and makes
cider at Black Diamond Farm
in New York’s Finger Lakes
region.
“It’s a very vibrant sector
out there,” Merwin said. “One
thing about the Northwest
scene, it’s a total free-for-all,
no rules. There’s a whole lot of
people having a lot of fun try-
ing to make cider.”
Merwin was among
the speakers at “Cider-
Con,” the U.S. Cider Asso-
ciation’s annual convention
that was held in Portland in
early February. About 1,200
cider -makers, apple -growers,
distributors and others from
44 states and eight countries
attended.
For now, hard cider is
something of a regional suc-
cess, and consumption is tiny
compared to beer and wine.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Bottles of hard cider roll toward labeling at Wandering Aengus Cider in Salem . Industry
experts believe hard cider is winning consumer acceptance the same way craft beer and
fine wine did.
Merwin estimated people
in Oregon, Washington and
California drink 80 percent
of the cider consumed in the
U.S.
Other convention speak-
ers said cider accounts for 1.7
percent of alcohol sales nation-
ally, but about 4 percent in
Portland and Seattle.
“We are where wine was
30 years ago and the craft beer
industry was 20 years ago,”
said Nick Gunn, co-founder
with his wife, Mimi Casteel,
of Wandering Aengus Cider-
works in Salem . “We’ve had
a lot of great growth, but we
have a long ways to go.”
Gunn and others say hard
cider takes some getting used
to. Many try it expecting a ver-
sion of fermented apple Muice,
and are surprised by the sub-
tle and aromatic À avors of true
cider. “People are unfamil-
iar with what they’re tasting,”
Gunn said.
The industry’s biggest hin-
drance is a lack of proper cider
apples. The best apples for
cider are sharp, bittersweet,
obscure and traced from old
English and French varieties,
Gunn and others said.
E.Z. Orchards, in north-
east Salem, was among the
industry pioneers in mak-
ing traditional cider from old
French varieties.
The U.S. is awash in
sweet, fresh-eating apples,
with Washington the lead-
ing producer, but FuMi, Hon-
eycrisp, Red Delicious and
other familiar varieties don’t
make the best cider. Many
cider -producers make do
with them, however, because
there is such a shortage of
proper cider apples. Some
use apple Muice concentrate
from China, Argentina or
elsewhere.
Educating consumers is
key to the industry’s contin-
ued growth, said Merwin, the
retired Cornell professor.
“All us in the cider realm
hope they will evolve in their
tastes same way wine drinkers
have,” he said.
“I started working on cider
in the 1990s, when nobody
was very interested,” he said.
“It’s been fabulous to see it
take off.”
Meanwhile, the push is on
to grow more traditional cider
apples. Gunn, of Wander-
ing Aengus, said he considers
himself an “apple evangelist”
these days as he hunts scion
wood for grafting and encour-
ages farmers to plant cider
varieties.
“If I can get them to grow
for our company, great,” he
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Nick Gunn of Wandering Aengus Cider in Salem , believes
brand differentiation will become key as consumers refine
their taste for hard cider.
said. “But at the very least
grow them for the industry.”
Gunn said he’s met with a
mix of enthusiasm and hesita-
tion as farmers consider los-
ing a couple years production
from a ¿ eld or old orchard as
new cider varieties take hold
and begin to produce.
“My selling point is, you’re
at the beginning of a trend,”
Gunn said.
A key advantage is that
cider varieties can be mechan-
ically harvested and used even
if they’re bruised, beaten up or
fall to the ground, Gunn said.
“They don’t have to be cod-
dled,” he said.
Gunn and others in the
industry say it’s blessed with
a cooperative spirit, as grow-
ers and cider -makers seek each
other out, ask questions and
offer help.
“It’s a very social drink,”
Gunn said. “It lends itself to
being collaborative. We’ve
had that sharing atmosphere
from the beginning.”
Generational shift stunts wine appetites, experts say
U.S. wine
drinking growth
expected to halt
temporarily
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Genera-
tional changes are expected to sty-
mie per-capita U.S. consumption
of wine in 2016, at least temporar-
ily stunting the longtime upward
trend, experts say.
The baby boomer genera-
tion, which consumes the most
wine, is now preparing for
retirement and feeling pressure
to spend less and save more,
said Mark Freund, managing
director for Silicon Valley Bank,
which tracks the wine industry.
Meanwhile, the millennial
generation faces its own ¿ nan-
cial concerns — such as paying
off student debt — and isn’t as
dedicated to wine, he said last
week during the 2016 Oregon
Wine Symposium in Portland .
Over the long term, though,
there’s reason to believe that his-
tory will repeat itself and young
people will come to prefer wine
as they grow older, Freund said.
Other economic factors cut
both ways.
Fuel prices are lower, allow-
ing consumers to spend more on
wine, but the volatile stock mar-
ket has raised concerns about
recession and inÀ ation-adMusted
incomes remain À at, he said.
³,t’s dif¿ cult for the middle
class to get ahead when there
hasn’t been real wage growth,”
Freund said.
U.S. wineries can also expect
to face more foreign com-
petition: While the output of
wine-producing countries such
as France, Italy and Spain has
trended upward, their domestic
consumption is down, he said.
That means those coun-
tries will be eager to export to
the U.S., which has emerged as
the top wine consumer in the
world, he said.
Young drinkers’ appetite for
craft beer doesn’t necessarily
have to come at the expense of
the wine industry, said Chris-
3
Oregon wine sales
Oregon winegrape
production (Thousands of tons)
2.68
(Millions of cases)
Sources: USDA NASS; Southern
Oregon University Research Center
2
Sources: USDA NASS; Southern
Oregon University Research Center
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
56.2
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
38.6
0.89
2.86 million: Up
6.9% from 2013
1
50.2
31.2
0
1998
’00
’02
’04
tian Miller, proprietor of Full
Glass Research, a market anal-
ysis ¿ rm.
The popularity of craft beer
is associated with consum-
ers seeking higher quality and
more intense À avors, which is
a “cultural trend” that may also
help wine, he said.
“What they’re shedding is
the Budweisers and Coors of
the world,” Miller said.
The millennial generation
represents about 30 percent
of the “high frequency” class
of U.S. wine drinkers, who
’06
’08
’10
’12
2014
buy roughly 80 percent of the
wine in the U.S., he said.
Baby boomers comprise
38 percent of high -frequency
wine drinkers, while the older
generation represents 13 per-
cent and Generation X rep-
resents 19 percent.
Sparkling wines are expe-
riencing consistent growth
since 2010, which may bring
new consumers to the overall
wine industry, Miller said.
Consumers associate Ore-
gon wines with small pro-
ducers, food friendliness and
2007
’08
’09
’10
good value, though the region
still isn’t as well-known as the
Napa and Sonoma regions of
California, he said.
The main reasons cited by
high-frequency drinkers for
not buying Oregon wine is that
they prefer wine from other
regions, that Oregon wines
aren’t available where they
shop and that Oregon doesn’t
produce the varietals they
commonly drink, Miller said.
In 2016, Oregon wine pro-
ducers surveyed by Silicon
Valley Bank said they expect
’11
’12
’13
If you smell
ROTTEN EGGS
it could be a gas leak.
And the best thing to do is leave your home and call
NW Natural. We’ll be out to make sure everything is safe.
Unsure of what to do? Just take a look at our tips to the right.
800-882-3377
2014
sales to increase 13 percent
in value and 9 percent in vol-
ume, which reÀ ects the trend
of consumers “trading up”
to higher-quality wines, said
Freund.
However, about 28 percent
of Oregon wineries said they
were experiencing poor ¿ nan-
cial performance, compared
to 16 percent for all winer-
ies surveyed, he said. Oregon
wineries also reported being
more willing to sell their com-
panies than the industry as a
whole.
How to identify
a possible
gas leak.
Smell. Go. Let Us Know.
Up
31%
from
2013
41.5
40.2
34.7
78.3
If you smell a rotten egg
or sulfur odor, you hear a
blowing or hissing sound,
or you see blowing dirt, it
could be a gas leak.
What to do.
Leave your home and the
area immediately. Don’t use
any electrical device such
as a light switch, telephone,
appliance or garage door
opener. And don’t try to fi nd
the leak yourself.
Who to call.
Go outside and use your
cell phone, or a neighbor’s
phone, and call NW Natural
at 800-882-3377.