It’s Time to Talk About Portuguese Cider

Since 2021, I’ve been regularly tasting Portuguese ciders and, whenever I get the chance, ciders from other countries too. And the more I taste, the more I feel we don’t talk about them enough. This article is my attempt to change that.

Before you decide that reading any further will be a waste of time, let me clear up one misconception: cider is not simply the sweet, fizzy, industrial drink we find in supermarkets, cafés and bars. Those products serve a different purpose and are intended for a different kind of consumption and they tell us almost nothing about the wider world of cider.

The ciders I’ve been tasting and discovering and that I want to share with you, are ciders where apple varieties, origin, fermentation, acidity, tannins and production methods matter and, in many cases, where orchards and traditions need to be preserved. Cider can be every bit as serious, complex and connected to its place of origin as wine.

Usually made from apple varieties that are different from the ones we eat, cider is, quite simply, fermented apple juice. Depending on the varieties used and the choices made during production, the styles can be very different:

• Dry or sweet;

• Different levels of acidity;

• Sometimes with noticeable tannins;

• Delicate or quite structured;

• Still or sparkling.

Some can also be aged in oak, and many have a genuine place at the table.

And if there is one place where you should start discovering Portuguese cider, it is the island of Madeira. Come with me!

Cider in Madeira is nothing new. There are records of the production of vinho de peros literally “apple wine” dating back almost to the beginning of the island’s settlement. The first apple and pear trees were brought by the Portuguese and, over the centuries, numerous varieties were selected and propagated, with others later introduced under British influence. Today, around 130 apple varieties are known on the island, some of them also found on mainland Portugal.

For a long time, cider was known as “the poor man’s wine.” Wine had a different economic and social value, while apples (also called peros) were available in areas where vines did not always grow as successfully, and fermenting them produced a drink mainly intended for local consumption.

The relationship between wine and cider, however, was not always an innocent one. Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the so-called vinho de peros existed alongside the production of fortified Madeira wine, sometimes even using the same presses, and there are records of it being used to adulterate wine. At the beginning of the 20th century, fermenting apples for the production of fake Madeira wine was prohibited. It was precisely following this ban that the terms cidra and sidra became commonly used for the drink obtained by fermenting apples.

As I listened to Márcio Nóbrega, a Madeira cider producer, telling me this story, I thought of the Colares wine region, where apple trees can be found among some old vineyards. I don’t know whether there is any connection, and I certainly don’t want to invent one, but it made me want to investigate.

The island has also had a public community cidery in Santo António da Serra since 2020. It is a shared facility created to make production, bottling, and commercialization easier for small-scale producers. The facility belongs to the Madeira Regional Government, although it is managed in partnership with producers’ associations. The government is also planning a second cidery in São Roque do Faial.

Since 2023, Sidra da Madeira has been registered as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). To use the designation, the fruit must be grown on the island and the cider must also be produced there.

Knowing all this, when I arrived in Funchal I expected to find cider in every bar and restaurant… not quite. I had the feeling that Madeira cider was a secret that had somehow been left out of the tourist guides, and it was only after making a few contacts that the doors to Madeira’s cider world finally began to open. My sincere thanks to Duarte from FugaCidade and to cider producer Vitor Maciel for his time and generosity.

One of the things that surprised me most when I visited Santo da Serra in Madeira with Vitor Maciel was realizing that simply talking about “apples” is almost as reductive as talking about “grapes” when discussing wine. And if you think Portuguese grape varieties have strange names, wait until you hear some of the apple varieties: Barral, Cara-de-Dama, Bico-de-Melro, Ponta do Pargo, Focinho-de-Rato, or Vime, among many others.

Much of the production is still extremely small-scale and deeply local. Some producers’ cider can mainly be found in neighborhood cafés, stored in barrels or large demijohns under the counter and served directly to customers.

This way of selling and drinking cider is actually permitted under the PGI specifications, and I have to admit that it makes for a very local and unique experience. The downside is that, in practice, it can be surprisingly difficult to buy a bottle to take home. For many producers, bottling their cider, creating a brand, and reaching markets beyond their immediate area remains a major step.

This is precisely where the Madeira Cider Producers Association and Vitor Maciel, as one of its representatives, have been doing work that I consider important, helping small producers improve the way they present and promote their ciders. The point is not to turn these small producers into large brands, but to make sure that a drink that is part of Madeira’s culture can be known beyond the café where it has traditionally been consumed.

Talking about wine means talking about vineyards, and cider is no different: you cannot talk seriously about cider without talking about orchards.

In Camacha, Quinta da Moscadinha has been working with local farmers and landowners to recover old orchards, some of which had been abandoned for decades. The project brings together cider production, cider tourism and gastronomy in a village once known as the island’s “orchard.”

The Minho opened the door for me

My introduction to cider, however, actually happened in Ponte de Lima in 2021, and I can say I had an excellent first experience: NUA, a project by winemakers Miguel Viseu and Tiago Sampaio.

The Minho has a whole other wealth of apples waiting to be discovered, more than one hundred varieties. In Ponte de Lima, Professor Raúl Rodrigues, from the School of Agriculture at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, has spent years working to recover regional apple varieties. Today, the school maintains a living collection of 106 identified and preserved varieties, the result of years spent travelling through the region, locating trees, talking to farmers and collecting plant material. A conservation and genetic improvement program is now underway to characterize around one hundred of those varieties.

And the names certainly do not fall short of their Madeira counterparts: Porta da Loja, Pipo de Basto, Sangue de Boi, Camoesa, Malápio, Agral, Três ao Prato… Many of these apples survived in small properties, along roadsides or in family orchards, with little or no commercial value. Will we one day start talking about apple varieties the way we have learned to talk about grape varieties?

This is also where Pedro Paiva, producer of Faca nos Dentes ciders, comes in. Pedro travels through fields and villages looking for local varieties that may have potential for cider. Some survive as isolated trees or in small, semi-abandoned orchards, and had become so undervalued that they were mainly used as animal feed.

There is something about these small projects that reminds me of the craft beer movement… cider is often a second occupation, there is plenty of experimentation, some projects begin in a kitchen or garage, and production is small and sometimes impossible to reproduce. And, interestingly, with every passing year there seem to be more winemakers becoming involved in new cider projects.

It is interesting to see professionals who are used to working with grapes becoming fascinated by apples. The answers I hear tend to come down to the same thing: they simply get a certain “kick” out of it. And many of the questions are familiar to them. When should you harvest? Which varieties should you use? Should different varieties be blended or not? How do you manage acidity? And tannins? How should the fermentation be handled?

When to drink cider

From a consumption perspective, cider can also be a very good option when you want to drink less alcohol. In fact, that was one of the reasons I first became attracted to it. And then there is the table. Dry ciders, with their combination of firm acidity, generally lower alcohol and, in some cases, tannin, can be extraordinarily versatile with food.

In the Basque Country, for example, cider and food are practically inseparable. It is common to drink cider with tortilla or fried cod. In Asturias, it accompanies rice dishes and meats.

Here in Portugal, you can think of seafood, but also fried fish, cured meats or pork. A fuller-bodied, more tannic cider can stand up to stronger flavors, while a dry sparkling cider with fine bubbles immediately makes me think of appetizers and I would even take a chance on oysters. And it is not difficult to imagine some of these ciders with roast suckling pig or roast chicken.

If you don’t feel like cooking, I have another suggestion for you: cheese! Cider’s acidity refreshes the palate after the richness of the cheese, while the tannin found in some ciders gives them enough structure to work with stronger, aged cheeses. That does not mean every cider will work with every cheese, just as every wine does not, but it shows how limiting it is to think of cider solely as casual late-afternoon drink.

Perhaps it is time to start looking at cider differently. And, while you’re at it, to give it a place at the table.

Want to taste some?

After all this, I hope I’ve made you curious enough to try a few Portuguese ciders. The challenge is that they are not always easy to find, so don’t be surprised if you walk into a wine shop and there isn’t a single one on the shelves. Curiously enough, Portuguese cider can sometimes be easier to find in craft beer shops and bars.

The list below is neither exhaustive nor intended as a ranking of Portugal’s best ciders. These are simply some brands and producers that I know, have tasted or consider interesting starting points for discovering this world.

Madeira Cider PGI

• Casa do Pomar*

• Ladeira*

• Sidra do Avô*

• Sidra do Massa*

• The Drunken Pharmacist* (distributed by Kuva Drinks)

Other Portuguese ciders

• Ada

• Alfa (direct sales: sidraalfa@sapo.pt)

• Faca nos Dentes (direct sales via Instagram)

• Noris (direct sales and available at Sidraria Celta Endovélico or Tasca Pacóvio)

• NUA (distributed by Who’s Wine and Cave Bombarda)

• Quinta da Moscadinha (distributed by Altos Provadores)

• Sidrada (direct sales: online shop)

*Available at FugaCidade

English translation by ChatGPT, reviewed and edited by the author.