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In the days before the M5 was built, the twisting A38 provided the only route to the West for holidaymakers from the Midlands and North. ; In the... [Western Daily Press (UK)](Western Daily Press (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) In the days before the M5 was built, the twisting A38 provided the only route to the West for holidaymakers from the Midlands and North. ; In the first profile of our new cider series, Chris Rundle looks at family cider makers in the West Country - all of whom started out small and have now moved on and expanded with the third or fourth generation of the family now in charge... It was rarely an easy journey. As family car ownership grew and tourists eschewed the train for the additional freedom their own set of four wheels gave them, summer Saturdays saw the road choked from Gloucester to Exeter, and often miles beyond. Overheating vehicles ground at snail's pace through the centres of Highbridge, Bridgwater, Taunton and Wellington. Families in these towns who were taking their own holidays further west often had to drive miles in the opposite direction to join the end of the queue. Achingly slow progress towards Devon and Cornwall was gauged by familiar sights and landmarks: the swooping descent of the Mendips to the Somerset Levels; the tantalising glimpse of the Quantocks marching seaward; and then came the signs proclaiming Sheppy's Cider works at Bradford-on-Tone, between Taunton and Wellington. And for thousands of tourists this location provided them with their first real taste of the West Country - literally. From the roadside stall he had fashioned from an old shed, Richard Sheppy would dispense thousands of gallons of the amber liquid to lubricate hundreds of family holidays in Devon and Corn-wall - and then sell even more as liquid souvenirs as the tourists returned home. More facilities were added to take advantage of the tourist trade, including a shop and a tea room. And even after the arrival of the M5 in the early 1970s saw the vast bulk of tourist traffic carried away from the A38, holidaying families would still make a detour to observe the annual pilgrimage to Sheppy's. In two years' time the family will definitely have been making cider for 200 years, though as the present head of the business, David Sheppy, explains, it could be far longer. "We've always been farmers in Somerset and Somerset farmers have always made a bit of cider," he said. "But 1816 was when my great-great-greatgrandfather John Shepson changed his name to Sheppy - which had always been his nickname - and when his son, also John, was born. So we can definitely date the cider making back to then." In 1917 the family moved to Three Bridges Farm, where cider orchards had been planted nearly 30 years previously. But it was Stanley, David's grandfather, who really started getting what was still only a small cider-making enterprise noticed in the 1930s when he won two gold medals at the International Brewers Exhibition. He was responsible for developing two outstanding champagne- style ciders, produced and sold as Goldfinch and Bullfinch: names which are still in use today, though applied to standard Sheppy blends. "For a small cider-making business to achieve recognition such as that was a real achievement," said David. "It's what really had put us on the map by the time Grandfather died in 1948." But Richard Sheppy, who inherited the business when he was just 21, was more of a farmer than a cider maker. Three Bridges Farm, then as now, supports not only apple growing but sheep, beef and arable production. "In fact, in the 1950s my father really lost a bit of interest in the cider and got out of production for a while," said David. "Then he was asked to judge at the Bath and West and really enjoyed the experience, so he decided to start the whole thing up again with the emphasis on tapping into the tourist trade." Richard reintroduced his father's Gold Medal blend, producing a full, bitter- sweet, still cider which was soon, along with the lighter, farmhouse blends, being distributed to local pubs. "The lighter one was supposed to be around six per cent, designed for easier drinking, but back then no one really had any idea what the actual strengths were," said David. Under the management of David and his wife, Louisa, and as one of the few remaining family-run cider producers in the country, Sheppy's is a buzzing, thriving enterprise. You can book an orchard tour and follow it up with a cream tea and a visit to the shop. But at the heart of it all remains the magic of the cider maker's art, the nose and palate required to blend ciders of vastly differing styles and qualities to produce the subtle, sophisticated products which are winning new drinkers every week. Cider apples are divided into four types: sweet, sharp, bitter- sweet and bitter-sharp, the "bitter" denoting the presence of tannins which provide the refreshing, thirst-quenching notes found in most ciders. Some apples produce ciders tasty and complex enough to be sold as they are, the cider maker's equivalent of the wine producer's monocepage. They include Kingston Black - regarded as the cider apple supreme - and Dabinett (first found growing in a hedge near East Lambrook in South Somerset), both of which David Sheppy sells as single varietals. Given the effect of climate and soil on apple flavours, though, his Dabinett cider may taste utterly different from one produced from the same apple 60 miles away. "When we took over in 1998 I detected a growing movement towards selling cider in 500ml bottles [now the standard measure] and I could see an opportunity to grow the business in that direction," says David. "Then we thought seriously about the single varieties. Father and Grandfather had had a lot of success with Kingston Black and luckily it grows well on this farm, whereas it doesn't always do well everywhere. "So we started with Kingston Black and Dabinett and got listings with the national multiples and they were an instant success. They really put us on the map far more than we had been." Like many a cider business, Sheppy's benefited from the fallout from the massive Pounds 20 million advertising campaign launched by Magners a few years back and which lured a new, young and appreciative share of the market away from the beer and lager sector. But it has retained a distinct and highly characterful range of ciders which set it slightly apart from the mainstream, ciders which are produced from the 15 core varieties among the 30 that grow on the farm. "Single varieties are fine and they still have a following but for me the best ciders are still the blended ones," says David. "Our bestseller now is our oak-aged vintage, a 7.5 per cent ABV cider, and although we do produce lighter ones at 4.8 and 5.5 per cent, that's the one I prefer. I believe apart from the quality of the apples the alcohol itself plays a part in forming the character of the finished product, even though that might not be quite the thing to say these days. "We are still catering for the tourists here but I have long since realised that you are not going to sell huge volumes into that particular market. But what the new interest in cider has done is lead to new opportunities to sell through pubs and supermarkets across the country. "And then there's the export side. We sell to Denmark, Sweden and Finland, Germany, Holland, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia and we're starting to get into the USA. The volumes are not huge but we are definitely getting the product out there." Bright, complex, modern ciders sold across the UK and to the world with the aid of sophisticated packaging and a considerable marketing budget. Sheppy's has come a very long way indeed in the space of a few decades. "I'm not sure what my grandfather would make of it all," said David. "I never knew him but I do know he was a very traditional person and he didn't find change easy. "He'd probably be delighted that we're still selling Bullfinch and Goldfinch, even though the ciders are different from the ones he used to make. But to him cider was a quality drink, not something you binged on, and I think he would be amazed by all the marketing and promotion that surrounds the cider industry now and which just didn't happen in his day. "I think - and hope - he would be impressed by what we are doing, which is continuing to emphasise the quality and tradition of cider in the way he and my father did before me. "I'd love to know what my father would think if he came back, too. I hope he would give me a pat on the back." Next week Hecks (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |