Every autumn, we press our apples and transfer the juice into old wine barrels sourced from around the world.
Although the oak barrels are carefully cleaned before use, they still contain traces of yeast from their previous contents. The apples themselves also carry wild yeast on their skins, which follows the juicethroughout its journey to becoming cider. Because of this, we rarely need to add cultivated yeast.
This spontaneous fermentation is slow and unpredictable. Once fermentation is complete, we age the cider in barrels for several months - and often years - allowing it to develop depth and character. When the balance of flavour and aroma feels right, we blend different barrels and vintages, often adding more fruit to spark a secondaryfermentation. After a few months resting on the fruit, the cider is bottled and left to mature further before release.
World-class fruit, old oak barrels, wild yeast, and plenty of time - these are the essential ingredients in our cider.