CiderCon
CiderCon® 2020 is OPEN FOR BUSINESS!
You can now register to attend CiderCon® 2020–the world’s premiere industry event for the cider community. It’s taking place in sunny and happening Oakland, California at the Marriott from Tuesday, January 28-Friday, January 31.
What’s new at CiderCon®? We are glad you asked!
- After a brief hiatus, the 1/2 day orcharding seminar is back! This will happen on Wednesday morning and will explore questions specific to growing apples in the western US.
- We’ve partnered with the Cider Institute of North America to offer an expanded technical production track. Cidermakers: this is for you!
- We’ve tailored a track focusing on sales, so whether you are the only employee or one of many sales reps, we can brainstorm how to sell more cider.
- Brain dates will allow attendees to schedule 15 minute sessions with expert consultants on a range of topics.
- Meet-ups will offer curated yet informal information sharing and networking opportunities. Meet-up topics on the docket so far include apple spirits production, perry production, influencer marketing, and sustainability. Want to pitch a meet-up topic? Let’s hear it!
- We’re offering 4 tours this year! Whoa! Whether you’re exploring the terroir of Sonoma County or the Parajo Valley, deepening your knowledge of pairing cider with food in the sizzling hot culinary scene of California’s East Bay, or digging into the history of Albert Etter and apple production in Northern California, you’re sure to learn a lot and have a blast while doing it.
- The featured international cidermaker guests of honor this year are from Ireland!
- And we are thrilled to welcome a keynote speaker, Jill Giacomini Basch from Point Reyes Creamery. We’re kicking off Thursday morning with a cheese and cider pairing!
Returning events include:
- TUES: Charles McGonegal’s Elements of Style workshop offers an in depth look at how to experience a cider.
- WED: The opportunity to become a Certified Pommelier™. Sign up for the exam when you register.
- WED: The TTB’s in-depth workshop covering labeling and tax policies.
- WED: The second annual meeting and gathering for Pomme Boots.
- WED: The roaring welcome reception and cider share featuring 50+ cideries!
- THURS-FRIDAY: Seminars galore! Production, tasting, marketing, apples, sales, business and compliance. As always, CiderCon® tasting sessions delve deep into cider production, evaluation, and philosophy.
- THURS-FRIDAY: An even BIGGER trade show than the year before, now sprinkled with cider sample offerings. Thank you, FruitSmart for your sponsorship.
- FRIDAY: The grand toast and bottle share.
- And more!
Visit the CiderCon® website to review more schedule details.
The base registration fee for CiderCon® 2020 is $395. This includes access to workshops on Wednesday-Friday, a ticket to the Welcome Reception/Cider Share on Wednesday night, the keynote address on Thursday morning, two delicious lunches, the BIGGER trade show happening Thursday & Friday and the grand toast on Friday night! (Tours and some workshops have an additional registration fee.)
Let us know if you have questions about registering for this event. See you in Oakland, cider friends!
P.S. CiderCon® 2020 is excited to be a part of Bay Area Cider Week! Have a cider event to submit? Do that here.
The Gravensteins of Sonoma County
“What can I get for you?” I ask the next customer at the bar. “I don’t know. Do you have any cider made with Gravenstein apples?”, comes the reply. “All the ciders on our menu have some Gravenstein in them. What sort of cider do you like?”
That’s a typical beginning conversation at the Craft Cider Tent of the Gravenstein Apple Fair, an annual fundraising event benefiting the local agricultural non-profit Sonoma County Farm Trails. Most of our customers are not regular cider drinkers, and have generally just tried one or another of the large nationally distributed brands. Confronted with a menu of 18 local ciders, from almost as many producers, they are understandably a bit flummoxed. We talk about what they typically drink, do a little sampling, and eventually find something they love.
When most people hear “Sonoma County, CA” they think wine, but apples have been a part of the commercial landscape there since northern Europeans arrived in the mid-19th century. Chief among them was, and is, the Gravenstein, an apple whose 18th century origins (said to be Italy, Denmark, or Germany) are shrouded in mystery. It’s an apple that expresses itself marvelously in the area’s loamy soils, warm, dry days, and cool summer nights. Nineteenth century pomologists had it right when they described the Gravenstein as having “that refreshing admixture of sweet and acid which characterize our most esteemed apples” and declaring it good for cider.
Cider makers in the area take full advantage of everything the Gravenstein has to offer making ciders that cover all possible flavor and texture bases – wild and tart native-ferments (Old World Winery and Coturri Winery); dry and fruit forward (Sawhorse Cider and Horse & Plow Winery); clean and crisp (Goat Rock and Ethic Ciders); semi-dry single varietals (California Cider Company and Golden State Cider), and complex blends (tannic from Tilted Shed Ciderworks, aromatic from Dutton Estates). The 10-fold increase in local cider companies over the last seven years has been a boon to local farmers, too, allowing them to resist the economic pressure to grub up their orchards in favor of wine grapes.
While the range of flavor possibilities seems almost endless, what these ciders all have in common is their use of local fruit, typically dry-farmed and organic, harvested and pressed in season. They also rarely make it outside of Northern California, and most can only be found within Sonoma County itself and the handful of counties that surround it. To experience all this place has to offer, you have to go there.
The American Cider Association is making it easy for the attendees of CiderCon 2020 in nearby Oakland to do just that with a pre-conference orchard and tasting tour. For cider lovers, it’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed.
American Cider Association Note: Registration for CiderCon 2020 and associated tours will open soon! Darlene Hayes will be the guide for the Sonoma Country tour.