One final look back to the Harvest of 2025 as we had such a brilliant response from producers this time around that we couldn’t quite fit their answers all into articles in December. If you want to check back in on the other four instalments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Of course, the making doesn’t stop when picking and pressing stop, you and I both know that. Right now, there’ll be producers racking off cider and perry into their second or third fermentation and maturation vessel. The clarity of liquid (hopefully) improving with each movement from one barrel to another. Sugar levels being retained if needed, and yeasts left with little else to feed on, or too high an alcoholic content to work out, so they call it a day and leave the alcoholic volume where it is. On the day of writing this introduction, we’ve had a flurry of snow in Norfolk, and there’ll be some producers going to check on their barrels, a few of which are left outside, dusting off the snow and making sure the airlocks haven’t frozen over.

When the snow has melted, those of us lucky enough to look after orchards will head out for a spot of winter pruning, removing any diseased wood, intertwined branches, or unlucky branches that snapped under the weight of 2025 mast year of fruit. Gaps in orchards can be infilled with new trees, it always feels such a blessing to be responsible for planting a tree in the ground! As a caretaker for the land on which you tend to for your productive adult lifespan, these fruit trees have the chance to lead far longer lifespans than we do, perhaps only outlived by a bottle or two of Kevin Minchew’s The Last Hurrah perry, stashed away in another garage for an ordinate amount of time to be re-discovered in the next century. After the planting of trees comes the collection of scionwood from interesting apple and pear trees, worthy of grafting on for a shot at another 100-200 years of the cycle again. I’m particularly looking forward to heading out once more in the next month and a bit to collect these little twigs of promise and bind them together with rootstocks to power them up, up, and away. That’s more on the final cusp of winter, just before Spring, or earlier if I’m allowed fridge space.

For now, there’s a plethora of Wassail events happening in orchards up and down the country. I’ll be celebrating at my friend Ben’s, our fifth Wassail in his orchard, surrounded by 30-year-old trees, the majestic Foxwhelp tree that stands beside our bonfire spot is always bedecked with cider-soaked toast and fruity bits n’ bobs by the end of it. All in all, this cidermaking malarky is a great reason to enjoy getting out and about at times of year where the inclination is to hibernate and find solace in front of the stove. Thank you for indulging in a mammoth set of Producer Summaries this past month and a bit, it’s been wonderful to glean an insight into how everyone’s harvest for 2025 went. Here’s to all that 2026 will bring us!

Blue Barrel Cider. Oakington, Cambridgeshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We embarked on the start of harvest22nd August and finished up 18th December.

Total amount of cider/perry made: The most we’ve ever made around 10,000 litres including the biggest crop we’ve ever had from our own orchard. Have filled every available container that holds liquid that isn’t the kettle.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Discovering new perry pear trees in Cambridgeshire including a friend’s tip off for a single tree dripping with pears which scored a whopping 1076 SG – not sure if this is a good thing yet but they were extremely cute pears with a classic pear shape but in miniature. Also harvested a new row of newly discovered veteran trees which had way more than we could possibly ever use. Also, the beautiful mild picking and pressing conditions were a bonus!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Potentially very exciting but could have challenges as high alcohol levels will taste a bit boozy (highest SG was a Russet scoring a record 1080) – Let’s hope it’s everything in abundance, including acids and tannins to create a vintage year.

Find & Foster. Exe Valley, Devon, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:  We started harvest in the second week of September and finished the last week of November.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 9,000 ltrs, stopped due to lack of tank space.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The Perry pear crop was considerably bigger than ever before. Blakeney red and butts. The trees are only 25 years old. We usually blend two vintages but this year will release a single vintage of Five Trees.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Good concentration, excellent flavour, high sugar levels.

Gospel Green. Blackmoor, Hampshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: 2025 was a long pressing season for Blackmoor Orchards beginning with cherries at the end of July and finishing with Cox’s from coldstore four and a half months later in the run up to Christmas. Harvest itself wrapped up relatively early on 17th October. The cherry pulp was frozen and later used for co-fermentations and the cherry juice for back-sweetening.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 25,000 litres of cider and another 13,000 (and counting) litres of juice for pasteurising.

A highlight of harvest 2025: We were thrilled at the rolling out of our monthly pop-up taproom which culminated in being rushed off our feet at the cider bar at our annual ‘apple tasting’ day (now in its 55th year) when over 500 pints of cider were consumed.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Across the board yields were high this year although this is partly a bounce back from some biannualism in our Cox crop. As usual Egremont Russet headed the SG charts – but not as high as the last dry summer’s crop of 2022 when our Egremont Russet single varietal fermented out at 10.2% ABV!

Hogan’s Cider. Alcester, Warwickshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We started picking perry pears on 11^th September, finishing up our harvest on 13^th November.

Total amount of cider/perry made: This year for harvest we produced 387,800 litres of cider and 11,700 litres of perry.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The highlight is actually having some perry this year (we only managed 3500 litres last year.)

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Gravities have been variable but generally better than last year (lowest gravity 1050, highest 1071).

Monnow Valley Cider. Llanarth, Monmouthshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: 1st date of harvest for me was technically 5th August when I started harvesting Dessert/culinary apples for my Apple juice product.

Start of Cider/Perry harvest was 6th September with both Betty Prosser and Judge Amphlett. Harvest culminating in the final pressing on 11th December with Powick Jennet and Swan’s Egg Perry pears.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 2,600 750ml bottles of apple juice this harvest. 2,700 Litres of cider produced, and 800 litres of perry produced. All the Perry was made as Single Variety being 13 different varietals. A much better year for perry pears this year thankfully, as last year was a very scant harvest. Largely due this spring to the nice weather meaning our friendly pollinators were in abundance. So grateful to them as always.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Definitely the quantity of fruit available this year…albeit some of the earlier season fruit were smaller due largely to lack of late summer rainfall but also due to the fact that there was lots of competition for moisture and nutrients as a result of the high level of flowers pollinated.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Above average SG’s were experienced due to the increased amount of sunshine this year…Highest for me was Hendre Huffcap perry at 1080 and Porter’s Perfection Cider apple came in at 1060 ( usual 1054)

Rob’s Cider. May Hill, Gloucestershire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: I started back at the start of September picking Taynton Squash, milling it on 16^th September. I’m looking to finish pressing sometime at the start of January.

Total amount of cider/perry made: This harvest I have made a total of roughly 1130 litres of cider and perry, of which 900 litres is perry!

A highlight of harvest 2025: Finding out someone was pressing the variety Rock in September, really a variety I would press much later on in the season around late November, early December. I had a month off, right at the start of harvest after catching flu, so I was laid up for a bit, then my mill decided to go wrong, the capacitor went on it, so I had to strip it all down and replace the capacitor. I could only manage 1 or 2 very small pressings a day at that time.

Picking with some other makers from Nottingham was lovely, letting them do most of the gathering in good weather for the start of the day, they had all the fruit from that. Producing a normal level of juice was beyond me this year after getting the flu at the start of harvest. So far, all the fruit I’ve harvested have come from less than 2 miles from my house on May Hill.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? Talking to my homebrew friend, its turned out a bit poor on the actual fermentation getting going. Both perry and cider was slow to start and become vigorous in the fermentation. The fruit was tiny, trees loaded with a lot of fruit, but what dropped early was a little too small. After this long, hot, dry summer I had assumed I was going to be pressing fruit very early, but actually a lot of it stayed on the tree as it hadn’t fully ripened. The SGs were all quite average, the highest was 1070 with Taynton Squash. But most in the 1050s and 1060s. I may have picked my Rock on the later side, so the fruit became a bit more mellow and ripened, the tannins had softened by then. It’s the first time I’ve gone back to Rock after 4 or 5 years. The good thing about it is you can see it on the ground, and none of the wildlife nearby will eat it as it’s so tannic.  Being patient allowed a slightly lower gravity, can be a good thing in a high gravity year for everyone else. Newbridge, I started picking end of September and then pressed end of October, leaving it for a while as it smelt chalky in fruit form. I left it as I thought it could do with another week or two. I visited certain trees a few times, like what Derek Hartland would say: “Leave it up to God – let the rain wash the fruit and the wind take the fruit off the trees.”

Ross-On-Wye Cider & Perry Company. Peterstow, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: Beauty of Bath, a heritage eating apple we have around two dozen trees of, was pressed early this year on July 30th. We completed harvest on 4th December with a Dabinett & Bramley pressing after waiting for some new tanks to arrive!

Total amount of cider/perry made: This has been our largest ever harvest, although when you look at averages, our production hasn’t significantly increased since 2021. We have made 201 different vessels of cider and perry.

A highlight of harvest 2025: For the first time in well over a decade, we’ve made a Knotted Kernel single variety cider, and just like the legendary Broome Farm Knotted Kernel of myth, this one is fermenting in a used rum cask. Finger’s crossed. I’m very excited to have produced both Knotted Kernel and Styre Wilding from two different sites so we can build a deeper understanding of these apples, and in general it has just been a fabulous year for variety: we have made 24 single variety perries and 41 single variety ciders, which beats our previous record SVs by 12! There’s a handful of debutants: Upright Styre, Tom Putt, Three Counties, Tanner’s Red, and Early Griffin. Not to mention a fantastic harvest of Flakey Bark perry.

The most important moment was getting married right in the middle of it!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? We can certainly be optimistic for the 2025 vintage. Early season fruit was pressed with record sugar levels: Major, Somerset Redstreak and Foxwhelp all produced at least one batch that was >1.070 SG, in large quantity, whilst a small number of more rare varieties also matched this – Sherrington Norman, Knotted Kernel, Three Counties. Later in the season sugar levels returned to normal as we ended up with soggier weeks, particuarly in November, however they were still higher than all recent years apart from 2022 and 2018. We have packaged one cider and two perries from this season already and they each taste fantastic, with vivid intense flavours and great clarity and delivery.

Sandford Orchards. Crediton, Devon, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: We technically started on29^th August (single variety load), with the main harvest kicking off 19^th September and finishing 21^st November.

Total amount of cider/perry made: The largest amount we have experienced since Sandford Orchards started.

A highlight of harvest 2025: The team effort for this year was essential to allow for the largest amount of apples to be pressed; the orchard growers, hauliers and especially our own team allowed for the year to run seamlessly.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? This year fruit sugars were mad-high early on, but due to heat stress the trees lost a lot of leaf in the last week of August and early September which meant that although the fruit was fine during main and late harvest, the sugars were actually distinctly average. On a recent visit to Westons with the NACM this was common amongst big and small makers. 

We found early on the nitrogen concentrations were very high too – which made for some turbo ferments, but this also reduced through the season. 

Seidir Tydecho. Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:  We started harvest September 3^rd and finished up on 12^th December.

Total amount of cider/perry made: In total we pressed 10,300 litres of cider for Tychecho, 300 litres on Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), and 4000 litres pressed with Cwrw Llyn in Nefyn. Twice as much pressed overall as in 2024, very exciting!

A highlight of harvest 2025: Taking our pressing kit over to Ynys Enlli by boat!

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? The 2025 vintage was bountiful beyond belief. SGs were higher than usual, but not as high as recorded in drier regions. The heavy crop has meant that we have been able to do more careful blends with fewer varieties in each blend this year, which is very exciting.

Severitt’s Cider. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:  Started with 12 litres of Beauty of bath pressed 23^rd August (small tree at my sister’s). I finished (I think, as I’ve not managed to get out to pick anything else yet) on 28^th November with Dabinett, a net of Browns, & a net of Brown Snout to top up a previous single variety pressing.

Total amount of cider/perry made: Only a very small 400 litres of Cider and 25 litres of perry this year, likely due to a mixture of work commitments, car issues and having flu at the most inconvenient of times when I wanted to be picking brown snout and others, capacity is also a bit of a juggling act in the very small area I have but trying to keep my sv capability.

A highlight of harvest 2025: There have been a few, early picking in shorts and T-shirt weather though the frosty weather and normality of donning waterproofs came later as expected. The higher early gravities, but I would have to say overall that the stand out currently has to be having some may say scrumped a few tiny little pears from alongside a public track that I have previously rode past as they rotted, and then managing to have them identified as a Holmer pear, alongside a fantastic gravity of 1072 but I only managed to pick enough for a small 25L batch.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? This year has been very stop start for me, early picking gravity seemed maybe normal at 1050? I’ve not picked that early or variety before to compare, 

Moving into some nice high levels, Foxwhelp 1072, the Holmer Pears, and Tremletts Bitter, great for keeving a bit warm outside or possible options to blend with some of last year’s lower levels cider.

Come mid to late November I would say levels were more normal again as the apples swelled with the later rain or the orchard I pick later just has more water available to them / less light year through, thought the brown snout were also a nice level but again only managed to pick enough for a 30l batch this year.

Toye’s Cider. Downham Market, Norfolk, UK

First date and last date of Harvest: I started picking the first fruit on 31^st August on the way back from RossFest, some early ripening perry pears (helped by Barry on the way to the airport). The last fruit I picked was technically some Golden Delicious (!!!) on 7^th December, intending to use it in a blend, but by then, there was no other fruit, and so I gave up on the idea and have used them for breakfast juice.

Total amount of cider/perry made: This year I made 1037 litres of juice, of which 577 litres is perry and 460 litres is cider. It won’t be like this every year I’m sure, it was just right place right time for perry, coupled with a house move throughout August so I couldn’t find time to pick the usual lovely Discovery apples then.

A highlight of harvest 2025: For all the perry pears I’ve picked, I’m actually most chuffed to have finally made 60 litres of single variety Major cider – I love this variety and am eager to see how it turns out in 2026.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? An early season orchard blend perry (from late August) came in at 1070 SG, following the pattern in the UK that a lot of producers have stated of high SGs earlier on, which then got back to normal when the rains came end of September. I’m working with a range of ages of trees and quite a few for the first time ever, so it’s all a work in progress to see how they age.

Wilding Cider. Chew Magna, North Somerset, UK

First date and last date of Harvest:  We did our first pick of perry pears on the 2nd September which is seven days earlier than we’ve picked anything before, and our last pick was on the 1st December, before a last press on the 3rd.

Total amount of cider/perry made: 27,000 litres, with 7,200 litres of that being perry, a total of 10,000 litres will be for distilling including 2,000 litres of perry. This is a significant increase on 2024 which was itself a record year (21,500 litres). Fruit was plentiful as well as wonderful and so we made every effort to get everything picked from our orchards. With tanks all full we did leave some for the sheep and the fieldfares but I reckon we did our best. As always, that’s all hand-picked. Huge gratitude to our amazing team of pickers.

A highlight of harvest 2025: Very hard to narrow it down to one, so I’ll give you two. The crop of perry pears, after a disappointing 2024, was big and of superb quality so we were really spoilt for choice in terms of blending. The second highlight was the performance of our home orchard, and in particular the top worked trees which are really cropping well and with great quality. Porter’s Perfection, Kingston Black and Foxwhelp are all set to make an impact in the ciders, and we had lots of Court de Wyck for pommeau.

How would you describe the vintage of cider and perry produced this year? High SG/low SG, good for ageing etc? It was pretty special really, quite like 2022 and 2018, all of which would probably be classified as 1 in 20 (50?) year vintages on historical standards but climate change will likely give us more of them. Lots of things lined up perfectly: a fairly wet 2024 which gave good growing conditions for the trees and plump fruit buds; a coldish winter which gave the trees lots of chill hours; a not-to-early spring with no challenging frosts and perfect weather for pollination; a well timed and prolonged drought which stressed the trees and drove good concentration and ripeness, and lastly enough rain in September to help the fruit come to completion without losing yield. The juice for us was very high SG, almost all apples over 1.060 (lots up to 1.070) and most pears over 1.070. I think pear juice peaked at 1.085 and apples at 1.073. The peaks aren’t unprecedented at all, but the average SG is higher than we’ve seen before. 

In quality terms things look good so far. Together with high sugar we’re seeing ripe tasting tannins and concentrated aromas, we were lucky to have lots of sharps and bittersharps this year meaning balance should be easy to find in blends. The high sugar will help with making sweet (Rural Method) cider and perry, and although the autumn average temperatures were a little high, we have been strategic this year and really focussed our Rural Method intentions on the November/December pressings, with most of the early fruit for distilling or ancestral method. We have already bottled two ancestral method perries during harvest which is a first but I suspect may get more common with climate change. 

I suspect that this vintage will age well with relatively high ABVs, lots of fruit character and plentiful tannins but we have also made sure to blend some things for earlier drinking too.