I've been told by members of my homebrew club that make great cider that one of the secrets to making good hard cider was to make sure that you kill off *EVERYTHING* in your base cider (using something like potassium metabisulfite,) before you add your chosen yeast. Dad told me about letting cider ferment in the fall and leaving the barrel outside in the winter to make really hard cider (freeze distillation.)
I used to think I like dry cider, then I had the opportunity to attend the Great British Beer Festival in London. Over 600 different fermented brews. The dry cider I sampled had fermented out completely, water, ethanol and just a few flavoring compounds were left. I've never had anything on this side of the pond that comes close.