Vintage Cider and Other Factors That Determine Its Quality

The world of wine is rich in specific vocabulary and terminology to indicate typical characteristics in the field of oenology.
The wine industry, however, closely guards this heritage of terminology.

In the cider sector, there is not yet an “official vocabulary” that is standardized and shared, but some expressions borrowed from the world of oenology are used, with specific regulations based on the countries that govern their use.

In the United Kingdom, for example, there are specific regulations that govern the use of some terms borrowed from oenology for the world of cider as well, with precise conditions of use and accepted formulations.

In the United States, on the other hand, using expressions from the wine world for cider is even prohibited by law.
However, there are terminologies that help describe and discuss the factors that determine the quality of a cider, such as “Vintage Cider” or “Terroir.” Let’s discover them together.

Vintage Cider, What It Is and When This Term Is Used

As we said, historically the term “vintage” is used for wine, but in 1888 it was also used for the world of cider. Specifically by Hogg and Bull in their treatise Herefordshire Pomona, a catalog of very popular cider apples of the time.

The authors of the book use the term vintage not in its temporal sense but to indicate a product with satisfactory taste and aromatic characteristics, thus indicating its quality.

Even today, the term is used in different contexts; some producers, for example, use it to indicate a particular type of cider, tannic cider rich in intense phenolic aromas.

Other producers, such as Orchard Cider, use the term vintage in its temporal sense, to indicate the variations of cider based on the year.
Each year, the same orchard or type of cider apple does not produce the same cider as previous years because many phenomena affect the quality of the final product.

An example is the climatic conditions that affect the entire life cycle of the apple tree, conditions that are indeed different from year to year.
A warm and dry climate favors the pollination process compared to a cold and humid climate; moreover, a late frost that hits the flowering stage can kill the flowers and drastically reduce the harvest.

The Terroir and the Cider

The vintage is not the only factor that affects the quality of the produced cider but also other very important factors such as the location of production and the exposure of the orchard.

This aspect in the wine world would be defined as Terroir and in the cider world has a similar significance.

It can be said that an apple type from an orchard can produce different cider using apples located on opposite sides of the same valley.
In addition to the exposure of the orchard and its topography, the soil also makes a difference. The minerals, nutrients, and water contained in the soil are very important in determining the quality of cider.