- SOMERSET -

'Secret Orchard is the beloved project of old school friends and cider enthusiasts,  Joe Heley and Todd Studley.  

 

Back in the mid-noughties, Joe was working as a tree surgeon and was inspired one day whilst pruning trees in a small traditional orchard on the somerset levels. With the sun shining through the apple trees, creating a vision of biblical proportions, Joe realised he was put on this earth to make cider.  He immediately set about telling anyone who would listen how much he would love to spend every minute of his life making the finest drink on earth.

 

No one really took much notice, apart from Todd, who decided it may actually be a bloody good idea.

 

A couple of years later Joe was still bothering anyone who would listen with his cider preaching when a chance meeting at a dinner party put him in contact with Tom from Nettlecombe estate, who it just so happened did have some orchards and the apples were going to waste......

 

After starting out making cider together on Exmoor, Todd then moved down to Cornwall. We now have a Cornish base near the village of Trispen, Truro. It means we get to make ciders with different flavours and characteristics that reflect the character of the different areas. 

Our mission: Create the most remarkable and complex ciders through the simplest means possible. 

These days  our knowledge and craft has improved significantly since the early days, and our approach has been cemented through our experience:

 

• 100% apple juice from orchards where no chemicals have been used. No concentrated syrup cider here. 

 

• Always letting the wild yeasts provide a natural fermentation. The flavour is far better than when using a manufactured yeast as many commercial cidermakers do. Why interfere when nature gives the best results?

 

• Keeping our cider at low temperatures to ensure a slow fermentation.  No need to rush. All our ciders are aged for close to a year to ensure proper flavour development.'