My name is Yvonne Lorkin and I am a cider nut. While wine is my core business (see what I did there), at least a couple of times a week I'll treat myself to a glass of something amazing made from our old friend, the apple.
One of my favourite new ciders comes from Paynter's, winners of the 2014 NZ Champion Cider trophy. The Paynter's Reserve Cider is glossy and golden in the glass, with incredibly tiny fine bubbles, and has lifted bitter sweet apple intensity on the nose, a palate with a cleansing, spicy kick and a squeak-pure apple sweetness on its super-long finish. "I'm making cider because I want to change the face of the cider industry," says Paul Paynter, who comes from a winemaking and orcharding background. "Here it's mostly made from concentrate, is very sweet, lacks complexity and is mainly a delivery mechanism for alcohol for youngsters on a Saturday night that's cheap and profitable but not very inspiring."
If great wine is made in the vineyard then great cider must be made in the orchard.
"I know about growing apples as we've been doing it since at least 1865," Paul says. "An English cider grower once asked me if I planned to grow 'standard orchards' or 'bush orchards'. The answer was neither. Standard orchards were what my grandfather planted in the 1920s and bush orchards are what he planted in 1960. Apples are the same as grapes - it's all about harvesting light, and traditional growing systems don't do that way."
A few years ago Paul started planting pest trees of cider variety and fermenting with a friend. "We learned a lot, mostly that we were ignorant! But now I've planted four more blocks of cider apples, visited 20 producers in Europe and the US and have an idea of where I am heading. NZ can make the best cider in the world; maybe I can make the best cider in the world."
