February 2016 – BEST IN SHOW for our Cider Gold at the Inaugural Tasmanian Cider Awards, also BEST PERRY and BEST TRADITIONAL CIDER.
October 2015 – Just back from Europe, we are drawing breath to face bottling our largest harvest yet. Our 2015 ciders and perries have been developing beautifully in our absence and we are about to start the bottle-conditioning process.
Exciting discussions with some of the world’s leading cidermakers has left us with food for thought on where to take our ciders and perries in future vintages.
It was a great thrill to meet ‘The Terroiriste’ Eric Bordelet in his orchards in France and to taste his truly amazing ciders, perries and Calvados.You can now buy them in Australia in top restaurants.
How’s this for an espaliered pear tree? It and many siblings have been growing for a century in the King’s Potager, Versailles France.
We caught up again in England with UK cider scientist, Andrew Lea, author of Craft Cider Making, who visited us in Tasmania on his way to address the 2015 Batlow Cider Conference.
March 2015 News
Our ciders featured at the the first Tasmanian Small Farm Expo in the Huon Valley in March. Red Sails had a tasting stand at the Expo and Clive gave a free talk on cider making. A very successful day for a first time event! Well done to the organisers!
Thanks to all who came to our OPEN DAYS this year at the Cidery, Middleton. We had a great response despite the lousy weather.
RED SAILS presented a workshop at this year’s Slow Food Salone del Gusto in Italy alongside some of the world’s best cidermakers.
The Miracle of Apples: Ciders (and Perries) of the World
Lingotto Centre, Turin, Italy
Gardens of over a hundred years old, incredible biodiversity, native yeasts and skilled artisans were the driving force in this workshop. A tasting of eight ciders from five counties including: Red Sails Wild cider by Clive Crossley and Lynne Uptin (Tasmania) from untreated apples that ferment with wild yeasts in large wooden casks; the Three Counties Perry (Slow Food Presidium) by Tom Oliver from Herefordshire, and the cider by Julian Temperley from The Somerset Cider Brandy Company in Somerset, England. The French ciders include Sagarnoa Cider from the Basque Presidium, and the Breton cider from the artisanal cider house Coat-Albret by Loïc Berthelot. Germany offered Jörg Geiger, producer of the Presidium Champagner Bratbirne Pear Spumante. And lastly, an Italian Presidium cider by Il Frutto Permesso di Bibiana near Turin, made from Heritage Piedmontese Apple Varieties.
