SA Wine Experts Launch Craft Cider

With the alcoholic industry going through somewhat of a “craft” explosion, g0od friends Paul Cluver and Bruce Jack, two of the Cape’s leading wine business personalities, have launched a handcrafted, premium apple cider, Cluver & Jack  in time for the holiday season. 

According to research company, Canadean, the global cider market was 19,2  million hectolitres in 2012, and is growing at 3,2% per annum. After the UK,  South Africa is the second largest cider market in the world. 

Cluver & Jack craft cider is not made from concentrated juice, but from pure  juice, freshly pressed from apples grown in Elgin. The Cluver family own De Rust, where they have grown apples for five generations, and the cider is made in the Paul Cluver winery. Paul Cluver says “craft cider is a perfect opportunity to add value to our apples, and will create much needed jobs at source.”   

The Jacks farm organically on The Drift Farm in the Overberg, and Bruce Jack’s great grandfather was one of the first people to plant cider apple trees in South Africa. Bruce Jack has been making cider in South Africa and in Ireland for many  years and believes that “we can make the best cider in the world here in Elgin – the conditions are perfect. We use handpicked apples, not ones that have  fallen to the ground where they quickly start to rot. As a result we are making  very pure, crisp and refreshing cider in the most natural way possible.” 

Bruce and Paul plan to be at the forefront of the craft cider revolution in South  Africa, and also have plans to export to the UK and the USA, where cider is the  fastest growing alcoholic beverage, up 90% by volume for the past two years.