Molly Leadbetter is the co-owner of Meriwether Cider Co., and earlier this year became the Gem State’s first American Cider Association certified pommelier (the cider industry’s equivalent of a sommelier). June is Idaho Wine & Cider Month, so we checked in with Leadbetter to get a peek inside one of Idaho’s only cideries.
What have the months since your certification and the community response been like?
“It’s been so extraordinary. I’ve never owned a business in another place, I’ve never really been an adult in a different state so I can’t say this for sure, but I feel like Idahoans are so proud of Idahoans. If there’s a first in an industry, it’s like a team victory. There’s so much pride that we take in other people’s accomplishments. And so it was just so heartwarming.”
What’s something you wish more people understood about cider?
“Oh my gosh, I’m gonna get up on my little soapbox. No one has ever tried a sip of Franzia or a sip of Coors Light and been like ‘Oh god, I don’t like wine or beer.’ They know that there are a vast variety of [beers and wines] … cider doesn’t get that perception nearly as readily. So somebody will try one mass market cider seven years ago that's really super sugary, barely tastes like apples, just tastes like a hangover. And they’ll be like ‘I hate cider, cider’s gross.’ And that is just wild to me because in my opinion, cider is absolutely the most diverse of any of the categories … If you can imagine a flavor combo, the sky is the limit. You can do it with cider.”
Meriwether has a strong foothold in Boise, but do you think there should be more cideries here?
“I think there is so much room to grow in cider in Idaho and in Boise. We saw [the national trends of cider’s growth] when we first started Meriwether nine years ago and we were like, ‘Oh we have to move fast, there’s going to be like seven other cideries in the next couple of years,’ and we’re still pretty much the only cidery in the valley. If you look at Washington and Oregon, they are just jam packed with cideries compared to Idaho. So I do think that there's definitely some room for more cideries to open and start producing here.”
