Henry Jeffreys

More than one bad apple: the sorry demise of English cider

Cider was the wine of England before commercial interests meant the characterful bittersweet apples were replaced by sugar and inferior fruit. But could a renaissance be under way?

‘Cider Making’, 1840-41 by William Sidney Mount. Credit: Heritage Art/Heritage Images/Getty Images 
issue 14 August 2021

Can you imagine if, in the 20th century, wine producers in France had switched from a product made (almost) entirely from grapes to something that was essentially grape-flavoured alcoholic sugar water? It’s inconceivable. In fact, they did just the opposite. To stamp out the growth of ersatz wines, the appellation contrôlée system was created, which, for all its faults, provides a guarantee that a particular wine will be made from grapes from a certain area.

But there was no such regulation in England. After the second world war, large-scale cider-makers in the West Country began lowering the amount of fruit in their products, specifically characterful bittersweet cider apples, and making up the rest with dessert apples and sugar. Quality plummeted. In his fascinating book Cider Country, James Crowden writes: ‘Bertram Bulmer once declared, in strict confidence, that you would not “catch him drinking any of his own products”.’

All this was done in the utmost secrecy.

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