HEREFORDSHIRE cider and perry makers swept the board at the annual Big Apple Cider and Perry Trials this year.

With 180 entries coming in from all over the UK, Bartestree Cider Company, near Hereford, was voted Champion Cidermaker, while Gregg’s Pit Cider and Perry from Much Marcle was named Champion Perrymaker.

Best Product in Show went to Once Upon a Tree’s Bottle Fermended/Conditioned Perry, Putley, Near Ledbury.

The Big Apple Association is a community organisation based in seven parishes of Herefordshire, between Ledbury and Hereford, which goes back to 1989. It started doing local events to celebrate orchards, cider and apples.

It established the cider and perry trials in 1992, an open competition, and instead of having a panel of judges to select the winners, everyone who enters then becomes a judge on the day.

The event, run by committee members and local volunteers, takes place at Putley Village Hall and once the entries have arrived each cider and perry is decanted into flagons which are numbered so they are anonymous to the judges.

Association secretary Jackie Denman said 64 cider and perry makers, including one from Scotland, submitted 180 entries.

Jackie said: “It is really hotly contested because it is peer judged. The person who had the idea wanted it to be about the cider makers meeting each other and learning from each other and having a great time and that it what happens.”

All this year’s winners were local but she said they have had winners from Finland and the USA in the past. Alexander Brinkerink, Heineken’s Cider Operations Manager, announced the results to a packed hall.

Jackie added that since the competition began they had seen a number of new cider and perry makers start up and grow. “It is wonderful to see the new ones coming up.”

A full list of winners in all classes can be found at http://www.bigapple.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/public_result_list_2017.pdf

Over the two days following the competition, the public was invited to taste all the entries as part of Blossomtime in Putley. As well as cider tasting, visitors were able to enjoy talks at Dragon Orchard from guest speakers Brigit Strawbridge and Pete Brown, walks through orchards in blossom and delicious home-made teas from Tarrington Brownies and Putley WI.

Jackie added that the competition involves a huge amount of organisation and committee member David Hewitt put in an enormous amount of effort to make sure it ran smoothly. “We also have a lot of volunteers who help.”