It's funny you should bring up this topic of cider apples. I just popped my first bottle ever of a single-varietal Kingston Black cider, and... is it a great cider? Yes, yes it is. Is it the best cider I have ever tasted in my whole life? No, no it is not. It tastes like... a great cider. But based on everything I have read, Kingston Black is one of the most troublesome diseased trees that you can possibly try to grow. I have tried to graft it onto my own trees for several years, but every year the scions have died. So... I officially give up on it.
Qualifier: I have a little 4-tree orchard out back with 8 different varieties grafted on. I have spent hundreds of hours researching cider apples in search of the perfect varieties. I have also tasted over 100 heritage apples looking for the most interesting ones that I might want to put into my cider. The best cider apples, I figure, need to be simultaneously very sweet, very flavorful, and very juicy, and hopefully a little tart and tannic on top of everything else. The best ones I have found so far are as follows, in no particular order:
Washington Strawberry -- A unique apple that actually tastes like strawberries! and is delicious to eat, and also has a high yield of ~1.053 sweet cider. Yummy and great for anyone to try growing. I don't grow it yet, but I should! Supposedly it is one of the easier kinds to grow.
Honeycrisp -- Well this one is obvious, ain't it. Gravity is in the 1.050s, very sweet and very juicy. Unfortunately has some growing problems and biennial bearing habits.
Scarlet Surprise -- Need something a little more tart with some tannin? Try this one. Not a great eating apple, although it is very pretty when cut open, sort of green/yellow skinned but with red flesh and red juice. High volume juice yield but SG is around 1.042.
Arkansas Black -- A beautiful balanced apple that is not too sweet, not too sharp, has a tannic bite... it's got to be just about the most perfect American cider apple, and it's great for eating as well. Not sure the SG on this one but I'm thinking it's average or above.
Liberty -- A good disease-free tart base cider apple, similar to Jonathan. Needs to be juiced quickly though as it goes mushy very fast. Not sure on gravity because it went mushy too fast so I made sauce of mine, but I do think it's worth a shot as others have had great success with it for cider.
Random crabapples -- It is a pain to pick and juice small crabapples, but you definitely need a few of these for the tartness and tannin that they add to your cider. Pretty much any kind of crabapple is fine for this purpose. I use some "decorative" ones from my in-laws house, and I also grow Dolgo which is a beautiful deep red color and not too bad to eat. Yarwood and Wickson are some other very good ones, for cider and for eating.
Now... if I was to go traditional and try to grow some old English varieties, I think I would stick with Dabinett and Yarlington Mill. These are supposedly good producers and not so heavily afflicted by problems as with the Kingston Black.
Most of these varieties can be found at either: cumminsnursery.com, maplevalleyorchards.com, or fedcoseeds.com/trees.htm. I have had great experiences with all three.
As for rootstocks, look for semi-dwarf like M.26 or M.7 or G.222 or something in that neighborhood -- the merchant will know what you're talking about if you say M.26 and will find something similar for you. This gives a tree that is maybe 12 feet high -- not too big (like a standard 30-foot tree) and not too small (a dwarf might only get to 7-8 feet). For something a little bigger, you could try M.106 or M.111 or B.118, but that will make closer to a 15-20' tree, apples are much harder to pick and you probably won't get many apples for a good 5-6 years either. With the smaller trees you can expect a tiny harvest after 2-3 years before things begin to pick up in years 4-5, and most of the apples are very easy to pick without ladders. Also, every tree needs an equivalent amount of horizontal space, e.g., a 20' tree needs to be 10-20' away from everything else so that it has room to grow and expand. All good things to consider before planning your orchard.
Hope this helps more than it compounds confusion. I'd be happy to share more information with anyone interested, if I can remember how to use the PM system on here, or via email.