A HEREFORDSHIRE cider and perry producer took home two top prizes at a hotly contested event.

Yarkhill's Redvers took first place in two categories at the highly revered Big Apple Cider and Perry Trials held at Putley Village Hall on Saturday, April 29.

Having been awarded the top prize in the bottle-fermented perry class, the Redvers Natural Perry 2021 vintage, 100 per cent juice, wild ferment, went on to be crowned the overall best product in competition across all 10 classes of cider and perry.

The Big Apple Cider and Perry Trials is a unique and peer-judged event, where all the judging is carried out by the entrants themselves in a series of blind tastings.

This means that the awards are decided by the very producers who understand the nuances and complexities of their craft.

Having founded Redvers in 2021, 28-year-old David Nash, who is the 7th generation of his maternal family to be born and raised in Herefordshire, sould he was "really honoured to have won the awards.

"But more importantly, I was thrilled to see so many talented and passionate people coming together who all care deeply about the preservation of orchards,” he said.

“My goal with Redvers is to help raise awareness of the importance of traditional orchards which have been in steady decline for decades. I want to help preserve local heritage and my great-grandfather’s tradition of making cider from the family’s orchard alive.

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"Knowing that he made perry from the same trees that I use today is a special feeling”.

David is following in his family's cider-making footsteps. Dating back almost a century ago to when his great-grandfather W. Redvers Aspey and grandfather Robert Aspey would handpick cider apples and perry pears, mill, and press them with the help of their trusty horse, Boxer, before fermenting them in oak barrels.

One of these barrels remains on the farm today, serving as a reminder of the family's long-standing tradition.

Redvers uses minimal intervention natural methods to create its range of ciders and perries, all of which are produced with fruit from the traditional family orchard in Yarkhill. The infamous Brown Snout cider apple was discovered in Yarkhill in around 1850 and is Redvers' signature. 

Unlike the commercial ciders found on the supermarket shelves, all Redvers products are made using 100 per cent juice, never from concentrate. They are fermented slowly over several months using naturally occurring wild yeasts, with the fizz being naturally generated in the bottle instead of artificially added.

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Following the annual Big Apple Cider and Perry competition, the public was invited to taste the entries over two days during the Blossomtime festival, also held in and around Putley and organised by the Big Apple Association.

This special springtime event offers visitors a chance to enjoy the beautiful countryside and orchards of the Marcle Ridge, where local orchards are famous for their cider, dessert and culinary fruit.

“I’d like to thank all the Big Apple volunteers who make the annual cider and perry trials possible,” said David.

“Without their hard work and dedication, the competition would not be the special event that it is today. It is great too to see so many members of the public coming out to walk around the local orchards and taste the juices, ciders and perries.

"I hope it will inspire more people to drink local and choose traditional ciders and perries all year round, and appreciate the value of traditional orchards.”

Redvers cider and perry is available from a range of local stockists such as The Nest, Ledbury, The Museum of Cider, Hereford, and Malvern Cellar, Malvern.