CIDER made in a 17th-century mill and press is going to be bottled on a 21st-century production line - with sparkling results .
Fair Oak cider has been produced for the last six years in a restored horse-drawn mill on a farm at Bacton – the only one now operating in Herefordshire.
After many months of fermenting in the cider house through the winter and spring, the drink that emerges each summer is a mellow, traditional, still cider.
But some customers recently have been requesting a sparkling variety, which according to Alan McCardle, the Fair Oak cider maker, is not easy to achieve on a small scale.
So now Fair Oak has arranged with traditional cider maker, Westons at Much Marcle, for a batch of cider to go through their carbonating process, and to be bottled on one of their modern production lines in wine-sized bottles.
"We’re quite excited," said Hilary Engel, who runs the Fair Oak ‘cottage industry’.
"We see this as Herefordshire’s answer to Prosecco, though perhaps not quite so fizzy."
Mark Yemm, contract packaging manager at Westons Cider, said: ‘We’re really pleased to be working with Hilary and her traditional cider making methods. Although our founder, Henry Weston, would have been familiar with the use of horse power back in 1880, it’s not something we are used to seeing in our production processes today."
All varieties of Fair Oak cider, including the new sparkling variety, will be available for tasting on Easter Saturday from midday, at Oakchurch Country Store, Brecon Road, Staunton on Wye.
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