Gregg's Pit & Cider

Gregg's Pit Cider & Perry is an award winning, artisan producer of craft cider and perry. We specialise in perry and feature in CAMRA's 'Good Cider Guide' and in the Herefordshire Cider Route.

Our ciders and perries are made using traditional techniques from 100% juice of the fruit of our own orchard and our neighbours' adjacent orchards, managed to organic standards.

In January 2003 our products were awarded Protected Geographical Indications.

History

James Marsden bought Gregg's Pit in 1992 and the title deeds showed that the cottage and traditional orchard had been present since 1785.

He began to restore the orchard which had suffered years of neglect, identifying the many varieties of cider apple and perry pear trees and planting new ones.

James made his first perry at Gregg's Pit in 1994, re-establishing a tradition that last took place in the 1920's. Helen Woodman joined him in 1998.

The Gregg's Pit name originates from a marl pit in one of the orchards, from which it is said the lime mortar was made to point the stonework of the 13th century church of St Bartholomew, Much Marcle.

Making

After blossomtime when the fruit has set, James and Helen walk through the orchards to check which varieties are likely to produce a good crop at harvest in the autumn. In mid-summer the crop is assessed again and a detailed plan for the vintage is prepared so that we know what to make and when.

The ripe fruit is picked up by hand from the ground from late September until mid-November. It is chopped in a mill to produce a pulp that is left to stand overnight. This softens the pulp, removes some of the tannin, and increases the juice extraction.

Next day, the pulp is taken to a stone press and tipped onto a press cloth, called a hair, and the cloth is folded up to make a square parcel. A pile of these parcels, perhaps 15 or more, is called a cheese. A heavy board is put on the cheese, the timber beam on the top of the press is wound down slowly and the juice runs out.

The juice is stored in an airtight barrel and the wild yeast begins its work. Several times during the winter, the fermenting juice is racked into clean barrels. When fermentation slows in May or June, the finished product is ready for bottling or sale on draught.

2007 Vintage

Weather conditions at blossomtime and fruit set were dry and cold. Late frosts and recovery from the heavy cropping in 2006 badly affected perry pears and it was an ‘off year’, especially for the Blakeney Red – a variety which we depend on for volume of fruit and yields several tonnes in a normal year produced less than half a tonne!

The weather broke at the end of May and the warm wet summer produced high volumes of cider fruit with lower than average sugar content.

By harvest time in late September and through October to early November the weather was kind with warm sunny days, dry cold nights and several harsh frosts – perfect for cider and perry making because picking up clean fruit was easy work, and temperature control in the fermentation shed to keep it below 12 degrees centigrade was no problem.

Fruit sugar levels were below average, other than one pressing of Kingston Black which had an original gravity of 10.70. There were good crops of Brandy and Butt perry pears, and cider apples were plentiful and of very good quality, especially, Browns Apple, Kingston Black, Chisel Jersey and Dabinett. Our 2007 production was 3790 litres (30% down on 2006), of which there are 2560 litres of cider and 1230 litres of perry (60% down on 2006).

Once again it was a very social vintage with more than 20 friends and family helping with all aspects of the cider and perry making process.

www.greggs-pit.co.uk