The outlook for the cider of 2009

Last night I was talking with one of our producers, Ben Crossman, and he was telling me that this year's harvest has not been great.
 
There seem to have been quite a lot of apples, but they have a high water content. It seems likely that most cider producers will have to add sugar to enable the fermentation to get the cider up to proper strength.
 
Apparently one local large-scale producer has already been forced to buy in an extra 1000 tonnes of apples. Additionally this producer was of the opinion that cider made from concentrate, where the original apple juice is reduced and concentrated and then brought back to the correct sugar levels by adding less water than was originally there, would this year be of better quality than cider made directly from the juice.
 
I'll have to take a look in at the UK cider wiki and see how those small producers are doing with their harvests. And this weekend we're off to see Roger Wilkins, our newest recruit to the CiderPunk clan, to pick up some cider and get some pictures for the website, so I'll get his opinion on the state of the apples and report back, with I hope some happier tidings.