A CIDER MAKER
Diana Temperley and her family have been making cider and cider brandy in Somerset for almost half a century – and even have royal approval
Cider has been made in this part of Somerset for 200 years.
We grow at least 40 varieties of apple. Stoke Red, Porter’s Perfection and Yarlington Mill are all British classics, but they’ve fallen out of favour with many big growers, who opt for sweeter culinary fruit to make artificially flavoured alcopops. Blending an array of apples makes the best real cider, balancing tannins, sugars and acidity.
The harvest runs from October to Christmas. We wait for the trees to drop their fruit, so we know it’s ripe. Cider (or ‘vintage’) apples have thick skin, so can sit in the grass for months without rotting. They ripen properly in the process. Bulmers Norman are the first to fall in September, while Black Dabinett are the last in December.
We pick up to 30 tonnes of apples a day. We use a tractorlike machine, which scoops up the apples using a sweeping attachment. Our chief harvester, Jason, drives it and is usually in the orchards by 8am. He then takes the apples to our yard for sorting. At this time of year, you can’t see the floor for piles of vividly hued fruits, ranging from rusty red to grassy green.
Cider-making starts straightaway. A ‘pit boy’, often my grown-up daughter Matilda, sorts through the fruit, removing any rotten ones. Apples are washed, then funnelled into our mechanised on-site mill to be crushed. The resulting pulp is pressed to create juice. We press 1,000 tonnes of apples a year, producing 100,000 gallons. The juice is funnelled into oak barrels using an electric pump. No water or colouring is added – just a pinch of yeast to help fermentation. Here, it ferments for three months before being bottled or distilled. The cider should be ready for drinking by May.
Our cider brandy was served at Prince Harry’s wedding. We were granted the UK’S first ever full cider-distilling license in 1989 and have been making Somerset Cider Brandy ever since. We use copper stills, named Josephine and Fifi, to create a clear 70 per cent alcohol spirit known as Eau de Vie, which we pour into oak casks to mature. It takes seven tonnes of apples to fill a single 500-litre barrel. Our cider brandy is also sold in Fortnum & Mason.
Last year was a great-quality vintage. We had a huge amount of blossom in the spring and the hot summer meant that the apples remained small while their juice became concentrated. The weather can create challenges, though. If it rains too much, the ground is too wet for the tractor. If it’s too windy, fruit might fall early.
This month, we’ll celebrate Apple Day (21 October). It’s a national commemoration of the fruit and its role in our landscape. We invite about 380 people, so it’s a proper party. We pour brandy around a tree and host a mummers’ play, a traditional folk performance. We’ll also have a guest speaker – we’ve welcomed Tom Parker Bowles in the past. Then there’s a live band – and lots of cider.