UPDATED: Record cider entries for Bath & West Show from Dorset and Somerset
THERE’S been a record number of entries into the cider, perry and apple juice classes at this year’s Royal Bath & West Show.
“A final total of 382,” said Rupert Best of Melplash near Bridport, who runs the Orchards & Cider Pavilion at the show in Shepton Mallet in Somerset from June 2 – 5.
“That’s 20 per cent up on last year,” he added, “and last year was also a record.”
There are 132 farmhouse cider entries, a figure which includes many new craft cider makers.
Farmhouse cider at the Royal Bath & West Show
“This reflects the generally healthy state of cider and its horticulture, and a continuing growth of interest in making and drinking the product,” said Mr Best, who has cider orchards of his own at Hinknowle Farm.
Dorset entrants
Entrants from Dorset this year include:
Cider-making
West Milton Cider Company, West Milton (ie, Nick Poole, the supremo of Powerstock Cider Festival;
Rosie Grant, Winterbourne Houghton, Blandford Forum (2009 Supreme Champion, profiled below);
Christopher Vye, Hincknowle, Melplash;
Lulworth Skipper (Dorset Cider);
Dorset Nectar (Oliver Strong), Salway Ash;
Best SW Orchard Competition
Hincknowle (ie, Rupert Best!)
Fran Wood, Coombe Down, Beaminster
Exhibitors, Demonstrations, etc
The Woodlanders
The Woodlanders (Rob Mullins), traditional mobile press cider-making, Shaftesbury. UPDATED: The Woodlanders have sadly had to withdraw because of illness.
UPDATED: Shaftesbury-based charity Common Ground (Sue Clifford and Angela King) will have a display in the Pavilion and will be there on the Thursday to present a prize and sign books. This year is the 21st Anniversary of their Apple Day and orchards support campaign.
Wessex Morris, wassailing, King Stag
Mill House Cider Museum (Penny Whatmoor), Owermoigne
Treewise/Symondsbury Apple Project (Kim & David Squirrel), Symondsbury
Bridport Town Orchard, (Andy Jeffries), Bridport
Mat Follas
One of the judges this year is Mat Follas, of The Wild Garlic in Beaminster.
The Show’s President’s is HRH the Countess of Wessex and Wessex is Mr Best’s Pavilion theme – Alfred the Great, Thomas Hardy… and cider.
Also this year a Mummers’ play will be performed.
Rupert Best
Mr Best said: “The show is the cider industry’s showcase. These are exciting times.”
For more details, see the Orchards & Cider section of the Royal Bath and West of England Society’s website www.bathandwest.com
Rosie Grant
Miss Grant won last year’s title of Supreme Champion for her medium blend cider. The judge was Lyme Regis restauranteur Mark Hix.
Champion cider maker Rosie Grant with Alan French, left, and Christopher Peacock (Masters at the Bath & West Show, 2009)
Miss Grant discovered cider when she moved to Somerset as a teenager, but work took her elsewhere. She joined the RAF as an avionics specialist, then moved to an electronics firm in Dorchester, near where she used to enjoy visiting Captain Thimbleby’s Cider Den at Wolfeton House.
She started to experiment with making cider in the 1990s, having planted an orchard of varieties including Kingston Black, Dabinett and Yarlington Mill. She used a French hydraulic water press called ‘St Em’ from the area outside Paris where it was manufactured.
These days, she supplies 15 pubs in Dorset with Cider by Rosie, often described as a reminder of “what cider used to taste like in the olden days.”