Meet the cider makers!
Join us on Sunday, July 7th for a celebration and tasting of the finest ciders and perries, with the makers themselves! From 4 PM until 8 PM.
Head to our community garden on The Landing to taste various bottles created by growers and producers from across the UK and beyond.
ARTISTRAW
Here at Artistraw we, Tom and Lydia, are passionate about making natural cider (no added sugar, water or sulphites- just apples). We hand-pick our fruit from unsprayed, low-intensity traditional standard orchards in the local area. This guarantees juice suitable for the attenuated fermentation technique we practice (not to mention being very beneficial to biodiversity and entirely aligned with our own permaculture principals).
Located in the Welsh Marches, just outside the beautiful town of books Hay-on-Wye, we enjoy access to some of the most beautiful orchards in the country. We are currently planting a 2.5 acre orchard just next to our cidery, which is gradually filling up with rare and interesting apple and perry pear varieties. Each tree has been grafted by ourselves, making what will eventually be, a very special orchard.
We are both committed environmentalists and apply this mindset to every aspect of cider making, from the creation of habitat in the orchard right down to the natural glue we invented to hand-stick our recycled paper bottle labels!
FIND AND FOSTER
Our aim is to reveal the quality potential of the traditional orchards that we foster in Devon; we cultivate, nurture and encourage them to thrive while creating natural, world class Champagne method keeved and pet nat ciders that feature on wine lists in some of the UKs top restaurants.
With the help of our flock of Shropshire sheep we work with orchard owners to help breathe life back into their traditional orchards, preventing further decline and the extinction of important local apple varieties, aiming to create balanced, biodiverse ecosystems, that thrive with wildlife and require minimal human intervention.
Our ciders are a pure expression of the apple varieties and the terroir. We add minimal or no sulphites and do not filter them. The vast array of unusual apple varieties lend diverse and unique flavours, aromas, tannins and levels of acidity, which we carefully blend and age in both French oak and stainless steel to create unique, complex ciders of the highest quality.
Unlike commercial orchards, these orchards are rich in nationally rare species and an important home for diverse pollinators, birds & other wildlife. Many also act as a gene bank where trees have survived for a century or more unaided by chemicals such as fungicides. Their disease-resistant genes are an important resource that needs safeguarding for the future. We graft these and other rare local varieties onto new young trees and plant young trees to replace those that have died.
90% of Devon's Traditional Orchards have been lost since WWII and 50% of those that remain are in poor condition due to a lack of incentive to manage them or replace fallen trees (Natural England, 2011). We work with small orchards throughout the Exe Valley, some ancient & full of fallen trees. Others suffocated by encroaching scrub and often strangled by wire that once protected the trees but was later forgotten.
Thanks to courses run by the Devon charities OrchardsLive and Orchard Link we have learnt to manage orchards to increase biodiversity (or maintain it where they’re already diverse), & improve overall health & vitality.
We prune to encourage growth and reduce 'windage', preventing more trees from falling and graze our flock of Shropshire sheep throughout the orchards to control weeds, improve the sward structure, improve biodiversity & soil health. Where grazing isn’t possible we prevent our fostered orchards from being overrun with scrub, nettles and brambles through staggered, late mowing of specific sites but always leave significant areas wild to support a diversity of small mammals, birds, butterflies and other insects.
In most cases the apples in these orchards were previously left to rot on the ground year after year.
IVOR CIDER
7 years ago my career was at a crossroads, so I took some time off which allowed me to explore a passion for fermentation in its many guises. I realised that the next stage of my career needed to be centered around this so hatched a plan to utilise the orchard at my family farm and started making cider. The orchard itself had once been used to make cider for the folk working on the farm but had since fallen into decline and most of the fruit was going to waste. I set about trying to rectify that by replanting, replenishing and a new mission to prevent all that waste. The challenge has been to make a fine cider without cider fruit and to resist the urge to buy more 'suitable' fruit from the many commercial cider orchards in the area, both to keep as much control over the quality of the fruit and to ensure the product is as sustainable as possible. Being self-taught, the 2020 vintages were the first I feel have been at the required quality to release with 2021 to go out early next year.
The cider is made in Far Forest, near Bewdley, Worcestershire at Silligrove Farm. The cidery itself is very boutique and runs alongside the orchard, so I have the luxury of being able to pick and process the fruit at the optimum time. This also means the fruit travels mere meters from where it grows to where it ferments, lowering our carbon footprint and ensuring the fruit is always in perfect condition.
The two ciders being showcased are called Early and Late. Both these ciders exist to highlight the difference in time in the orchard - Early is the fruit that ripens before October, Late, after. They are also a representation of how I work in the orchard, which is always in stages, aligned with the fruit slowly ripening on or off the trees. I will be pouring two vintages side by side, 2020 and 2021, which makes for a fascinating comparison as both are made in the same way with largely the same mix of fruit.Both drinks use only what nature provides and are made without additions and with as little intervention as possible. No additives, sulfites, fining or filtering. Just a natural expression of the apple or pear and the terroir and always 100% pure juice. Aging is either in tank or in a bottle - no wood or any other agents are used to impart flavour. They are simply modern single orchard blends using a rich varietal mix of culinary and eating fruit, alongside traditional perry pears. My style is almost dictated by the orchard - I cannot for example keeve successfully with the fruit I have at my disposal so have to find ways that get the most out of the fruit, without compromising my approach to intervention. My approach to being as 'natural' as possible was first driven by my wife's mild allergy to sulfites, but it closely aligns with how we eat and drink as a whole - making the most of seasonal, organic produce that is sustainable and well cared for.
Oliver’s
Oliver's make a selection of fine Herefordshire ciders and perries with an emphasis on "balance" and "character" coupled with "drinkability". Based around the spontaneous ferment of selected varieties of cider apple and perry pear from fruit grown in Herefordshire and the surrounding 3 Counties orchards.
Nominally referred to as "minimal intervention", we strive to "take what the fruit gives", respecting the great heritage and traditions of the past but with an eye to innovating for the future. What that really means is we mill and press great fruit, expose the juice to marauding and hungry wild yeasts and then for our part blend and bottle the resulting ferments.
All the while respecting the health, safety and well-being of our customers, consumers, employees, the earth's natural resources and the environment.
Cider was made on our farm until my grandfather decided that with the arrival of mechanization it was no longer appropriate, as the consequent move away from horse and man power left less need for refreshment while on the job.
The old stone mill decayed and the rest of the equipment was sold, given away or fell into disrepair. I started from scratch again.
Oliver's motto is to "take what the fruit gives" and from there we try to intervene as little as possible.
So when the fruit arrives at the mill, we check it over to see how long we will sweat it for and work out rough milling proportions to get enough acidity/tannin/sugar balance in each pressing.
When ready for pressing the fruit is washed and then milled. Some perry pears are then macerated for up to 48 hours.
The milled fruit is then coaxed through a belt press.
The resulting juice is pumped into tanks or wooden barrels for fermentation. The spent pomace is elevated into a muck spreader for spreading on the arable land or feeding livestock.
Now it starts to get interesting and we run the gauntlet with no sulphur addition and just let the wild, native yeasts do their thing. To our mind the end results justify the potential pitfalls.
Ferments are at ambient temperatures and usually/ inevitably continue through the winter, finishing in the spring when the alcoholic ferment may be simultaneous with the malolactic in some situations.
Through blossomtime and beyond we keep checking the state of play of the resulting ciders and perries and start to draw up a plan for each barrel or tank. Is it destined for a single varietal, a blend, a vintage, a naturally conditioned? So many possible outcomes and each barrel suggests to us, in its own way, what its future destiny is.
Then when the time has come, we blend the various ciders and perries, choosing the best from the barrels and tanks we have, to get the right harmonious balance of sweetness, acidity and the astringency/bitterness of the tannins.
Ross On Wye
Ross-on-Wye Cider & Perry Company produce an eclectic range of drinks, with the ambition of fully expressing the terroir of their home by showcasing the individual flavours of spectacular apple and pear varieties, as well as curating carefully selected blends which each tell a unique story, drawing from the tapestry of over 100 apple and pear varieties grown on their farm. Every drink is made with purpose in order to contribute to the rich, vast and ever-changing world of naturally produced, wild fermented, hand-crafted cider and perry.
Albert Johnson is a fourth-generation cider maker and farmer at Ross-on-Wye Cider & Perry Company. Albert balances the tradition and heritage of his family home with a forward-thinking and creative perspective on where cider and perry can travel in the future; exploring through his cider-making all the avenues through which apples and pears can journey down. He is Vice-Chair of the Three Counties Cider & Perry Association and has been organising CraftCon, the UK’s only cider-making trade conference since it began in 2019.
SKYBORRY
Skyborry Cider & Perry was founded in 2010 by brothers Adam and Dani Davies just outside the town of Knighton, Powys. Our operations straddle the border of Wales and England. From a small shed nestled into the side of the Teme Valley, we produce a mixture of bottle-conditioned and draught cider and perry. Our small orchard planted in 2010 is beginning to fruit, but most of what we harvest is negotiated from old standard cider orchards in the Wye Valley, North Herefordshire. Believing the best quality fruit comes from these biologically diverse relic orchards, our practice also includes orchard management, helping landowners to maintain and re-plant traditional orchards. Fruit is harvested by hand and fermented spontaneously with no addition or filtration. Recently single orchard blends have been a focus as we try and understand more about not only the apple varieties but the variation in location. We make just 5-7000 litres per year.
Townsend Farm
The farm was set up to grow apples for contract. After seeing many parrels from my previous life in the dairy industry. I wanted to convert the farms apples into a product that shows each harvest and reflects the work that goes into the trees. So we started with apple juice and growing. As well now as cider. Keeping interactions to a minimum on the cider. Not interfering with the production too much. To allow the real character of the apples come through. To make cider that is apple-expressive as opposed to interactions and contact with things that will affect the taste. Mostly pet nat and bottle condition so far, but this harvest think we will finally have some cold racked fizzy cider from one of our organic orchards.
Two Orchards
Freddie and Ted met over 7 years ago and started their collaborative cider-making shortly after. Combining Fred’s access to West Country tannic fruit, and Ted’s access to eating and cooking apples of the east of England, Two Orchards marries two schools of cider-making to create something quite unique. With the aim to make the finest Traditional Method Cider around!
WILDING CIDER
We are Sam and Beccy Leach. We are natural cider and perry farmers/makers in Chew Magna, North Somerset. We practice regenerative farming in traditional orchards. Our home farm and orchards are certified organic. Fruit is picked from the ground in the old way, left to mature and fully ripen before pressing, and then fermented gently and slowly with wild yeasts, no sulphites and plenty of time.
We came into cider making from the restaurant world, so from an interest in food and drink, as well as farming. We started to make cider as a hobby and it grew from there.
We chose the name "Wilding Cider" because at the time, we didn't have a base or single orchard to name ourselves after, and we like Wildings - they are feral apple trees growing from discarded seeds. Several good cider apples have been found as wildings, including Dabinett. We also like the approach of wilding farmland - not necessarily ‘rewilding' - abandoning farmland to the wilderness, but letting wildness come into the farm around the production, with nature and farm coexisting. We see our orchards as a part of nature, not apart from. We also use wild yeasts, so there is a little link there too.
High Peak Cider
We are a small community project based in Furness Vale, that collects apples and pears from the High Peak and the surrounding area, to produce juice and cider.
Naughton Cider Company stems from over 2 decades of experience in the world of Champagne.
We set about trying to create the purest expression of Cider. A cider that is elegant, refined and generous. A Cider that perfectly expresses the potential and brilliance of the humble apple. A Cider like no other, we use apples from our ancient walled garden as well as a number of other local orchards (and a few further afield!).
Our process mirrors that of the Champenoise. Primary fermentation is done using a Champagne yeast in barrels previously used to make Champagne. The apple must (Cider before it is bottled) then ages on lees (dead yeast cells) for 10 months before being bottled.
Bottling involves adding more Champagne yeast and sugar to create the magical bubbles! The bottles then sit for 2 years (and some cuvees for much longer than this) before being disgorged by hand and corked. Before finding its way into your glass!