GuytheGrape

At one time virtually every farm in Somerset had its own cider barn where householders would make cider for themselves and their workforce. They were usually partially under ground and had a tree planted right next to them to keep them nice and cool in the summer. This photo was taken at Higher Plot sometime late in the 19th century and shows the barn on the left with its newly planted tree.  Sadly this year the tree didn't show any signs of life and so will have to come down after more than 100 years. It may re-grow from the roots but if not, we will plant a new one. A very small number of farms in Somerset still make cider in the traditional way and I went down the road to Beer Aller to help out at Nightingale Farm where they use an old press and crusher to mill local apples. Unlike wine making there's no sulphur, cold stabilisation or anything like that just the natural yeasts from the apples. As they say, the force of the ferment will be strong enough to...

Roger Wilkins - by Banksy? There's a bit of a Cider and Perry revolution going on the West Country. We went to Wilkins cider farm this weekend. Tasted straight from the vat it's  fresh, clean and completely delicious. Unfortunately within a day of bringing it home it oxidises and starts refermenting. It's not undrinkable but certainly not nearly as good as when freshly drawn. That's because it's natural and alive and not a heavily processed product. It is often the same when you taste bulk wine - it's full of flavour but if you bottled it unchanged you run risks of the wine having tartrate cristals, being cloudy or even exploding. This made me think about the debate raging (do wine bloggers have the energy to rage?) about "natural" wine.   We have all heard about wine not travelling and drunk something great on holiday that is dull and lifeless when you get home - a bit like me. This must be to do with surroundings but also, when somebody knows th...

What do you think?

A while ago in an idle moment, ie before we planted a vineyard and idle moments became a thing of the past, it occured to me that the taste of apple juice is no less interesting than grape juice, in fact often it has more subtlety and character. From our semi in suburbia I thought about how great it would be if somebody got the chance with the right apples to make bottle fermented cider using sparkling wine techniques. The coincidence that exactly the right mix of apples remain in our old orchard is gobsmacking. It is what made me think that living here was just meant to be. Bramleys for acidity, Golden Nobles, Morgans and Arthur Turners for sweetness and just enough old local Aller cider varietals that nobody seems to be able to identify for body. We picked our first crop in 2008 using a wheelie bin to get them to the car - who would have thought that an old Mercedes estate could carry a third of a ton of apples. There are long winded debates withi...

Apples have been grown and Cider made at Higher Plot for hundreds of years and there are still around 30 trees still standing which are at least 100 years old. The orchard is known as Half Moon. The one next door is called Full Moon because of the round shape of the hill. Over the next year we are going to start work on restoring it and planting new trees including some perry pears. The apples are old varietals including Golden Noble, Arthur Turner, Morgan Sweet and Bramleys.   The Ton of apples that we crushed for the 2008 Bottle Fermented Cider. This is a real contrast to the vineyard where control over clonal selection, soil management, spraying  and strict pruning is supposed to produce a regular (in terms of quality and quantity) crop. With the orchard, the trees are so entwined with their environment that they crop massively with no disease on a biannual basis with no intervention. This is a pure example of how  overtime biodynamic supporters see a n...