Cider festival in Baltimore, Md.

Max's TapHouse in Baltimore, Maryland has a one-day Cider Festival on tap (and in bottle), Tuesday 28 July, at 6pm. Here's the line-up:

ON DRAFT:
E Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut 2006
E. Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut 2007

IN BOTTLES:

FRANCE
Domaine Christian Drouin Poire
Dupont Cidre Bouche 1998
Dupont Cidre Bouche 2002
Dupont Cidre Bouche 2003
Dupont Cidre Bouche 2004
Dupont Cidre Bouche 2005
Dupont Cidre Bouche 2006
Dupont Cidre Cuvee Colette 2006
Dupont Cidre Cuvee Colette 2007
Dupont Cidre De Givre 2006
Dupont Cidre De Givre 2007
Dupont Cidre Reserve 2008
Dupont Pommeau 1996
Dupont Pommeau 1998

SPAIN
Sarasola Saqardosa

ENGLAND
Aspall Dry Cider
Aspall Medium Cider
Aspall Organic Cider
Henneys Dry Cider
Henneys Sweet Cider
Henneys Vintage 2007 Cider
Olivers Blackeney Red
Olivers Herefordshire Dry
Olivers Bottle Conditioned

US
ÆppelTreow Winery Appely Brut (Wisconsin)
ÆppelTreow Winery Pommeaux (Wisconsin)
Farnum Hill Extra Dry (New Hampshire)
Farnum Hill Semi Dry (New Hampshire)
Farnum Hill Summer Cider (New Hampshire)
JK Scrumpys (Michigan)
Original Sin (New York)
West County Dry Baldwin (Wisconsin)
West County Kingston Black (Wisconsin)
West County Redfield (Wisconsin)

Real cask cider, pulled from a cask, at Rustico restaurant in Alexandria, Va. 2009.03.27. Gwatkin Yarlington single varietal cider from the UK. First time in USA since 2003.


In a manner reminiscent of good-wine drinkers shying from beer because they think all beer to be light lager, there are some good-beer drinkers who pass on real cider. They think of all cider as flavored alcohol cocktails.

But real cider is not that. It is indeed wine, but carbonated: simultaneously tart, tannic, phenolic, and juicy.

Cask cider from the UK --which will not be poured at this fest-- is often referred to as Real Cider, and is relatively strong at 7-8% alcohol by volume. [When I first posted, I unintentionally omitted the modifier "cask" before "cider". As listed above, bottled English cider will indeed be served at the fest. Also, see the comment from Alexander D Mitchell IV below. Some of the bottled English cider exported to the US may be tasty --excluding the flavored stuff-- but it is not nearly as remarkable as the casked variety.]

French cider, called cidre, is principally produced in Normandy. It's lower in alcohol than English cider, but it packs a tannic/phenolic punch, with a character like chewing on an apple skin.

There is a nascent cider revival in the US, but government regulations on taxes and procedures make a robust industry problematic.

• More on cider and cidre here.
• Caveat: I work for a beer/wine wholesaler in northern Virginia, one of whose products is Aspall Cider.