The guru: Tom Oliver
Talk to cider lovers and one name keeps coming up: Tom Oliver. People from all over the world beat a path to his Herefordshire farm to try his remarkable ciders and perries. Tom is particularly revered in America where he is also sound engineer for The Proclaimers and he describes making cider as like mixing sound; experimenting with apples and storage methods. He keeps some cider in inert containers to preserve fresh fruit flavours whereas others are aged in wooden barrels to develop complex aromas. Tom then blends them together. ‘I love character but what a traditional cider drinker might think of as character might be impossible for a wine drinker to embrace.’ Felix Nash calls it a ‘refined funk’. Tom was brought up on the farm. His grandfather made cider here but the family turned to hops until prices declined in the 90s. Tom switched back to cider, planting orchards with classic cider apples and rare varieties of pears. Recently he combined traditions with a hop-flavoured cider, At the Hop. He sells to Michelin-starred restaurants like Lyle’s and Fera at Claridges. ‘Cider’ he told me, ‘has an opportunity to replace wine at the table.’ Tom recommends mussels cooked in cider drunk with his off-dry sparkling cider