Few people, in the grand scheme of things, really know anything about perry. Most folk in the UK are aware of ‘pear cider’, but they don’t neessarily associate it with perry, and a lot of people who do know about perry don’t like the term ‘pear cider’ – or indeed consider it to be a separate product which, for the record, it is not. (At least not by UK law).

After all, presuming you don’t live in the Three Counties (and, in honesty, much of the time, even if you do) you’re unlikely to simply stumble upon perry. Leaving aside the macros, you won’t find any at all in your supermarket. You’ll be very lucky if you come across it in your local, and if your local does happen to sell any, it’ll likely be bag-in-box. Which is fine, if conscientiously kept and drunk within a couple of months, but as we know of bag-in-box – especially when it comes to often-fragile and less-frequently-ordered perry – that may not always be the case.

Availability, as we’ve commented a few times in the past, has improved immeasurably even in the short time since I began writing about these drinks. It’s easy to forget that five and a bit years ago, before Scrattings built on the world of the Fine Cider Company and really pushed the envelope on online mixed case availability, buying selections of really good cider and perry online from a range of producers could be impossible. Many producers themselves didn’t sell digitally – many still don’t – and you don’t always want to buy the same thing from the same folk. (Or I don’t, anyway). We’ve had it much better with the rise of the likes of Aeble, Fram Ferment, The Cat in the Glass and other retailers listed on our resources page – people who have done phenomenal work to increase the profile of aspirational cider and perry – but for the most part you still have to know they’re there, and many don’t.

Now, you could make the case that many producers don’t especially need online availability. The majority of makers in the UK, after all, sit below the 7,000 litres per year mark. Minuscule, in the grand scheme of things, and a total that in most cases can easily be sold through via a combination of market stalls, small local retailers and events such as festivals and the like. Marketing can be a faff, is certainly a drain on time and resources, and doing it properly is a real skill which not everyone has trained in. ‘Why bother?’, you might argue. 

My counter-argument, which admittedly comes from the cushy position of not having to sell perry, and the particular position of being an advocate who would like to see the best for the whole category, outside the needs of any one particular producer, is that for perry in general to grow, awareness and availability needs to be more widespread. It does perry comparatively few favours to only (for the most part) be sold over the counter and in one small nook of the West Midlands and Welsh Borders. 

I’ve occasionally been criticised for writing up ciders and perries that can’t be bought online. And I do hear you. I get it. It’s frustrating to read about a product that most people can’t simply hop online and purchase. Believe me, I would like nothing better than a world in which every cider and perry was as freely available online as much of wine, beer and spirits are. I would love cider and perry to have more of a presence in cities, where a broader spectrum of people would be able to enjoy them. But it’s no accident that probably the best city to be a cider drinker in the UK is neither Hereford nor Bristol, but Manchester – far from the heartlands of these two drinks. Getting good cider and, especially, good perry in front of people is simply hard work. It takes effort and advocacy above and beyond that required of other drinks categories. There is still an enormous work to do, and the truth is that if I only reviewed ciders and perries that have found their way online, I would have a far smaller pool from which to draw. Improving accessibility and availability is crucial.

Today’s perry comes from one of the producers I would most like to see gain an online presence – whether through their own website, or through being stocked by an independent retailer. We interviewed the team behind and involved with the Houghton Project a little less than a year ago. It’s an organisation dedicated to helping people to gain rural skills – amongst which, of course are cider and perry making. At the time they were fresh from winning at the Hereford Museum of Cider’s International Cider and Perry Competition and speaking to founder Tim as well as Taylor, who works for the project and Alistair, one of the participants, was one of the most inspiring interviews we’ve conducted for this site.

Since then, they’ve gone on to win two perry categories at the Museum’s 2023 competition (which I was lucky enough to be a judge at) and seem generally to be going from strength to strength. But at present the ciders and perries themselves still aren’t available to buy online, and I think that’s a shame. There’s no one whose wares I’m keener to point people towards; everything I have tried to date has been excellent, and it’s such a brilliant initiative to boot. Being found and drunk outside of their county of origin would, I imagine, only be to the benefit of the Project more broadly. 

I can see at the time of writing that work is being done on the website, and I do hope that part of that will involve a facility for people to order their ciders and perries. I’m sure that the team are phenomenally busy as it is, and I know that cider and perry only represents part of what they do, but I would love to see cider and perry lovers around the country being able to buy their product. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed, and also hoping that one of the independent retailers I’ve already mentioned drops the Project a line.

In the meantime I was delighted to stumble upon one of the Project’s perries at Malvern Cellar, in the eponymous Worcestershire Town. I was dropping in after visiting the magnificent perry display and bar at the Three Counties Autumn Show – something I’d encourage all perry lovers to get along to. Malvern Cellar does have a website, but it’s not one you can really seem to buy from directly (someone please correct me if I’ve been an idiot here). Their selection, however, is excellent, and includes producers which can be hard to find elsewhere as well as bottlings otherwise long-since sold out. I filled a box and still left regretting much that I had left on the shelves.

I can’t tell you a huge amount about this perry except to point you back towards last year’s interview, where Taylor mentioned Gin, Blakeney Red and Thorn as well as five big unidentified trees near Bosbury. Nonetheless, it’s an absolute joy to finally be sitting down with a Houghton Project perry that I’m not tasting in the unlabelled conditions of competition judging.

Houghton Perry P2 2022 – review

How I served: Out of the fridge for 20 minutes or so.

Appearance: Hazy pearlescent Gold. Still

On the nose: Very fresh and fragrant. Ripe pears, bright topical fruit, lemon zest and lemon oil. Al little freshly cut grass. There’s a ripe gumminess of fruit too – yellow, green and orange gummy bears all mixed together. Just a really lovely, fruity, appealing young perry nose.

In the mouth: Super freshness of fruit on the palate too. Soft, but balanced by gentle acidity, with a lovely winey mouthfeel and tension. Not too much tannin, which makes that yellow tropical fruit, sliced peat, fresh canteloupe melon and satsuma all the juicier. Incredibly appealing, with just a dab of balanced off-dryness.

In a nutshell: A basket of bright, ripe fresh fruit that’s dangerously easy to drink.

Conclusions

Lovely perry. Easy to recommend. What’s more, one that I could confidently pour for anyone; in the best way possible, there’s nothing ‘challenging’ in terms of its profile or structure – just a lovely, fresh, fruit-driven perry which the makers should be very proud of. This is the kind of perry for cracking open straight away. Maybe it would age – who knows? – but with fruit this bright and open and appealing, I don’t want it to. Catch it in the full bloom of its vivacious youth.

What I find particularly impressive about the Houghton Project is that they would be doing more than enough if they just gave participants the opportunity to make these drinks. The fact that they’re dedicated to visiting other producers, looking to improve the quality of their ciders and perries, entering them into competitions and generally going additional extra miles is fantastic.

Perry in general would benefit hugely from greater availability, accessibility and advocacy. But I hope that the Houghton Project specifically will be picked up by those who can offer a broader audience. They have, after all, done such brilliant accessibility work in giving people the opportunity to get involved with perrymaking itself – something whose inherently rural location can be a barrier to entry.

As aspirational perry continues to ascend and be championed, I’d love to see The Houghton Project stocked by independent retailers and I hope they’re contacted by the fantastic cider clubs that run in such cities as Manchester, Cardiff, London and Birmingham to boot. Their story deserves to be told. Their perries deserve to be drunk.