All posts tagged: welsh cider

The International Craft Cider Festival 2011 is the first of its kind, and is set to become a real highlight of any real cider-lover’s calendar.

There will be craft cider and perry makers from around the world; with the first year focusing mainly on producers from France, Germany, Spain, England and Wales, but with interest too from Ireland and Finland.

Event details:

  • Location: – Llancaiach Fawr, South Wales
  • Date: 12-14 August 2011
  • Attractions:
    • International Cider bars
    • International Cuisine
    • Live Music
    • Camping
  • Website: www.internationalciderfestival.com

The Wales International Craft Cider and Perry Festival is a cultural celebration of locally produced cider, perry, food and music from each participating region. In the first year it is hoped that the festival will feature some or all of the following regions from Europe: England (The South West/Three Counties), Germany (Saarland/Hesse), Austria (Mostviertel/Muehlviertel), Spain (Asturias), France (Brittany/Normandy), Norway (Hardanger Fjord), Switzerland (Toggenburg) and Wales.

The cider and perry producing regions of Europe and the World are not generally known to the potential visitor or tourist and are therefore not on top of most people’s destination list when they are considering a holiday or weekend break. A key aim of the festival is to show the beauty of these regions, discover the similarities between them and positively explore and celebrate the differences. The regions all have a rural friendliness, good high quality but honest food and all are truely and uniquely beautiful. And if you do visit with someone who’s not as fanatical about cider and perry as you, don’t worry, there are plenty of things to their taste too! We can’t wait for you to discover them….

The festival aims to celebrate and promote the artisan craft cider and perry industry; bringing producers together in a global community. It will also celebrate the wider food and music cultures that the cidermaking forms a part of, with a number of internationally inspired bands appearing on the live music stage, and caterers feeding the appetite of the festival-goers. This festival is not only an opportunity to showcase Wales to international visitors, but an opportunity for other countries to promote their areas and cidermaking culture.

For the past 9 years the Welsh Perry and Cider Society have been running a successful Welsh Perry & Cider Festival and championships, just outside Abergavenny. Building on our success there, we want to go bigger and embrace the world craft cider movement.

Cider is called “seidr” in Welsh. And there has been a lot of seidr enjoyed the last few months!

With reason to celebrate Welsh cider after the recent award to Gwyntt Y Ddraig at the International Cider and Perry awards.

With more and more small artisan producers emerging onto the competition and festival scene, it’s exciting times for the revival of traditional real cider in Wales.

The Welsh Cider and Perry Society is proving to be a catalyst for these producers. The societies aims are to encourage a greater appreciation of these natural craft drinks, spearhead a new era of orchard planting and promote Welsh perry and cider as an indigenous alternative to wine.

Welshcider festivalThe last bank holiday of May, Welsh cider makers and fans, gather for the annual competition and festival in the grounds of the Clytha Arms in Monmouthshire for the Welsh Cider and Perry festival. I’ve been for many years, and is exciting as the Clytha is a fantastic pub anyway, the festival adds another dimension with around 40 different makers producing many different ciders and perries, and  various  live bands on to entertain the drinkers throughout the weekend.

This years event, despite the rain there was a good turnout. The weather improved on the Sunday and by all accounts it was another successful weekend.

The results for the Welsh Perry and Cider championships that are held at the festival are as follows:

Welsh Perry & Cider Championships 2010

Cider

Dry Draught Cider

  • Gold: Palmer’s Upland Cyder Cheeky Jackdaw Cyder
  • Silver: Des Devlin Drunk Dragon Dry
  • Bronze: Blaengawney Heartbreaker

Medium Draught Cider

  • Gold: Seidr Dai Knotted Kernal
  • Silver: Rosie’s Triple D Medium
  • Bronze: Ty-Bryn Cider, Oak Barrel Medium Sweet

Sweet Draught Cider

  • Gold: Springfield Dabinett
  • Silver: Seidr O Sir Cantref
  • Bronze: Rosie’s Triple D Black Bart

Spirit Cask Cider

  • Gold: Rosie’s Triple D Wicked Wasp
  • Silver: Berriew Bettws
  • Bronze: Troggi Penallt

Bottled Still Cider

  • Gold: Springfield Dabinett
  • Silver: Rosie’s Triple D Rampant Ram
  • Bronze: Blaengawney Heartbreaker

Bottled Sparkling Cider

  • Gold: Ty-Bryn Cider
  • Silver: Blaengawney Dabinett
  • Bronze: Ty Gwyn Medium

Champion Cider

  • Gold: Springfield Dabinett
  • Silver: TyBryn Medium-Sweet
  • Bronze: Rosie’s Triple D Wicked Wasp

Perry

Dry Draught Perry

  • Gold: Llanblethian Orchards Pick ‘n Mix
  • Silver: Three Saints Burgundy
  • Bronze: Bragdy Penywern Dry

Medium Draught Perry

  • Gold: Ty-Bryn Blakeney Red Medium Sweet
  • Silver: Seidr Dai Hellen’s Early
  • Bronze: Bragdy Brodyr Silver Lady

Sweet Draught Perry

  • Gold: Raglan Cider Mill Old Vicarage
  • Silver: Troggi Llansoy
  • Bronze: Gwynt Y Ddraig Two Trees

Bottled Still Perry

  • Gold: Blaengawney Perry
  • Silver: Three Saints Divine
  • Bronze: Rosie’s Triple D Perfect Pear

Bottled Sparkling Perry

  • Gold: Troggi 2008-EP
  • Silver: Ty-Bryn Medium Sweet
  • Bronze: Palmer’s Upland Cyder Blakeney Red

Champion Perry

  • Gold: Ty-Bryn Blakeney Red Medium Sweet
  • Silver: Raglan Cider Mill Old Vicarage
  • Bronze: Troggi 2008-EP

Follow @ArfurD for more Welsh Cider updates and the Brew Wales blog.

If you want to attend a Welsh cider festival this weekend (10-12th June), get along to Cardiff and the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival. Cheers!

Gwynt y Ddraig Cider, is now one of Wales’ biggest cider producers. It’s not hard to see why they are one of the biggest producers as they have a wide range of ciders for all types of cider drinker. Run by Bill George and Andrew Gronow, the family cider farm started out as a hobby which grew into a full strength business. As well as stocking supermarkets and pubs they also host a cider festival with music and madness to draw in the crowds.