VICTORIANS are leading the way in quenching a growing thirst for cider, SARAH HUDSON reports

Just when you'd managed to grasp the newest wine trends and grapple with the booming boutique beer business comes the latest big thing in boozy brews: cider.

According to the latest statistics, consumption of the fermented apple drink has risen four-fold in the past three years across Australia.

And cider insiders say rural Victoria is leading the trend with some of the rising stars of the industry.

Lisa Cresswell, who has made Seven Oaks Farmhouse Cider from her family's 48ha apple orchard in Merricks North, on the Mornington Peninsula, for the past six years, says Australia is slowly catching up to Europe.

"In Britain, pubs have it on tap and I'd guess it equals, if not outstrips, beer and ales in some regions," says Lisa, who studied at the Cider Academy in Somerset.

John Jeffs, who imports French cider and runs cider competitions, says thanks to the interest in boutique beers, quaffers are now thirsty for new experiences.

"Victoria and NSW have the most serious players but Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania have producers popping up everywhere," John says.

Drew Henry, of Henry of Harcourt, was one of the earliest adopters, starting cider production 15 years ago, which he sells from his cellar door.

"Seven years ago it was hard to sell cider but now, thanks to the trend in microbreweries, people are looking for something different. They are sick of industrial, bland beer and over sauvignon blanc," Drew says.

Cider producers attribute the rise in the brew's popularity to its complexity, which Drew says is equal to wine, requiring a good palette to appreciate.

"The sort of industrial ciders rushed on to the market by alcopop makers, you don't need a palette for. They're colourless, odourless, slightly sugary, fizzy flavoured apple water," says Drew, who was a geologist working overseas before moving to Harcourt.

"Cider is like a good dry wine, that has a balance between acidity and tannins and sweetness.

"There are lots of sensations. But whereas wine tasting tends to be in the mouth, beer brewers talk about the after taste in the back of the throat when swallowed. Cider is the same."

On Henry of Harcourt's 5ha, which has 4500 trees and 33 varieties of apples, Drew produces 30,000 litres of cider a year, with the process taking about 12 months from tree to bottle.

While Drew, who works in the business with his wife, Irene, and son, Michael, says they are at maximum production now, it has taken much work to get to this success.

Firstly he had to source the correct apple varieties.

"When we first started we made some shockers, we didn't have a clue," Drew says.

"You can use eating apples but generally cider apples are very unpleasant to eat, they are bitter and astringent."

He says the three characteristics of apples used in cider are acid, sugar and tannin.

So for instance, red and golden delicious apples are low in acid and high in sugar, which makes a bland cider.

Pink lady, a sharp variety, makes a dry and crisp cider, which some have referred to as similar to chardonnay.

Because many cider apple varieties were not easily available in Australia when Drew first started in the business, he played detective, going to great lengths to source a species.

"We met a number of collectors who over the years had become fanatical about collecting apples.

"We also went to the Department of Primary Industries in Orange, NSW, where they had French cider apples and we found more at a market in the Goulburn Valley.

"It's detective work. We were forging new territory. Some varieties turned out to be dogs. The only way we could find out was to grow the apples and make the cider."

John Jeffs says apple varieties are crucial in ensuring the best end product.

He initially looked at making his own cider from his South Australian apple orchard.

But after three years of failed attempts, he realised he could never replicate the quality of the French product.

"I tried to make cider with juice grade apples that weren't used on the supermarket shelf. We were trying to avoid wasting apples. But we found making drinkable, commercial cider hard," John says.

"I went to France and came across different cider makers and they have hundreds of years of knowledge embedded in their culture and so I thought why bother trying to make it, I'll import it."

Lisa Cresswell says the beauty of the fruit is that it does not require a massive amount of work, except washing, and because cider apples are bitter, they do not attract birds and insects.

Each year she produces up to 6000 litres of cider, from 14 English and 15 French apple cider varieties, sold at the Red Hill market and various local outlets, which takes up to 18 months to go from tree to bottle.

Admitting she has been "bitten by the cider bug badly" and that the process is a "labour of love", Lisa says she is still working towards profit.

"I'm a nurse and so I still work to pay for this. You can't print how much this has cost me or my husband will divorce me," she jokes.

She says aside from ensuring the best-quality apples, the production process is equally as important.

Lisa uses the traditional British method of "wrack and cloth" to extract the juice.

Apples are pulped through a fine macerating machine and then wrapped in nylon cloth, similar to hessian, and pressed to extract the juice, before fermentation.

"There are many other different methods. The French ferment the pulp without extracting the juice which makes a sweeter cider," says Lisa, a mother of two.

"In cider-making there's integrity at every level. You can't rush it and it's pretty labour intensive."

She says her aim is to replicate the British ciders.

"Often they are very heavy, certainly not sweet, very full bodied and higher in tannins, but still amazingly aromatic and smell like fresh, crisp apples," Lisa says.

"It's nothing like we drink in Australia. Over there cider is so much a part of their culture, a part of their souls."