How D’ya Like Them Apples

As October's last apples tumble from the trees; look no further than our own shores for an ideal pairing with the roasts, braises, and cheeses we welcome with the turn in weather.

Our pal Alex Fitton of Trouvaille has just sent us an ace selection of bottles from small producers working naturally with often ancient varietals, making delicious and complex ciders.

Please do try some for yourself, they're surprising, delicious and absolutely excellent value.

An Introduction to Natural Ciders:

Oft-maligned, with a lingering memory of teenage over-indulgence most people will often refuse to try -or look down on- what has been historically Englands finest ‘wine’. Cross-over influence from the natural wine scene and a renewed interest in local food production has given the cider world a shakedown, bringing to the fore producers steeped in time-honoured methods, local varietals and flavours that scream of terroir.

Devon ciders have a heritage of mixed orchards, blending cider varietals with cooking apples to give a punchy fruit driven flavour throughout.

Find & Foster Ciders are the it-kids of the fine cider world. Working with local farmers to revitalise lost and moribund Devonian orchards (over 90% of which have been lost since WW2!) Polly and Matt Hilton make some of the finest ciders in the country. Their aim is to preserve the heritage of Devon cider-making through using near-extinct varieties of apple in a range of high quality sparkling ciders that showcase the terroir of the orchards they manage whilst trying to promote biodiversity. Somerset ciders have a delicious funk balanced out with a tendency towards basing their blends on bittersweet varietals.

It’s impossible not to draw comparisons between the natty wine world and Wilding Cider.
Some of the newest ‘natural’ cider-makers on the scene, Beccy and Sam Leach ran the successful restaurant Birch in Bristol before founding Wilding. They are now full-time farmers and cider-makers using traditional techniques and absolutely no added sulphites in their ciders to showcase a wide range of old varieties of Somerset cider apples.

For a more traditional approach, travel on down to the bottom of the stunningly beautiful Barley Wood Walled Garden (shared with the Ethicurean Restaurant) where you’ll find Mike and Isy making cider and apple juice in the little wooden roundhouse cidery. Their aim is to showcase the full character of their orchards using over 60 varieties of apples, antique manual presses, low intervention cider-making and wild yeast ferments.

It's not all new-wave hip young couples though, sometimes you’ve got the old boys who haven't strayed from the ‘this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it’ path like Martin Harris at Butford Organics.
Adhering to a strict no-sulphite, low-intervention production routine Martin continues a long line of Herefordshire cider and perry production in his 300 year old cider mill. A rarity in that they make the only certified organic bottle-conditioned natural perry in the country!

At Woodrow orchard with Find & Foster