Bath & West Show 2016 is nearly upon us and this year Nick has been asked to co judge the bottle fermented and sweet bottle conditioned classes. Julian Temperley of Burrow Hill is the other judge .
We have decided to enter just the class for fruit ciders and apple juice this year.
Looking forward to Wednesday 1st June to judge the ciders, meet friends from the cider world and generally enjoy the Orchard & Cider Tent.
Bath & West 2015 Thursday of the show week turned out to be a very good day all round. The sun shone, the cider flowed and the conversations buzzed. It was great catching up with friends from all over the country who come to the Bath and West every year for the country’s biggest cider competition. A fair few are often found at Powerstock each year and it was a treat to share a bread and cheese “nammet” with Altbert Rixon and crew with their antique mobile milling and pressing machine – a very interesting bit of kit if you ever get to the show.
I was asked to hold a tutored cider tasting class at 11.00 am which was quite an experience. I think most people were keen just to get on with the drinking nevermind the descriptions! Even with a microphone it was difficult making myself heard – which was probably just aswell as I expect I managed to waffle quite a lot!
The day ended on a high note for us with a Gold award for our Lancombe Rising which also received Reserve for the Supreme Champion Cider which would have been the highest accolade of all – try again next year! However we were also delighted to get a Silver for our apple juice which was our first ever pressing this year so we obviously did something right.
