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Heck's Traditional Farmhouse Cider UK |
Heritage
Sixth generation cider makers, Chris and Andrew Hecks, are incredibly proud of their heritage, being raised on the family’s cider farm in the heart of the Cider Making County of Somerset, in the West Country of England. Their parents, John and Mary, still live on the premises in Street, which have been in the family since 1896. The cider making history of the Hecks family can be traced back to an 1841 census, when first generation cider makers, also John and Mary Hecks, lived and farmed at Lord Lease Farm in Chard, Somerset.
Awards
Decorating the stone walls and wooden beams of the cider barn, are prizes in their hundreds, being awarded at local, regional and national competitions.
We are especially proud of the twenty plus first prizes awarded by CAMRA, having won the Championship of Great Britain for our Cider and our Perry.
In 2010, we became Champions of Farmhouse Cider at the Devon County Show for the fourth time, with Chris and Andrew being given the honour of judging the competition in more recent years.
The Royal Bath and West Show host the biggest cider competition in the world. Having won Best Perry in Show in 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2013, we were delighted to lift The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers' Cup in 2014, as British Champions of Farmhouse Cider.
Orchards
Lenmore sits a few miles south of the cider farm. This traditional orchard, with deeds dating back to 1760, has been in the family for generations, yielding a silver medal at the Imperial Fruit Show, Crystal Palace, London in 1922 for Bramley apples. To this day, we celebrate by making a barrel or two of single varietal Bramley cider from the fruit of the very same tree!
A wonderful orchard, planted with vintage quality cider apple cultivators with just the right mix of tannic bittersweet and bittersharp varieties to produce a perfectly balanced juice for fermentation.
The apples used to produce all of our ciders are harvested within six miles of the cider farm, from our own and surrounding traditional orchards of standard cider apples trees, where sheep and cattle graze amongst the abundance of wildlife.
In our orchard at the foot of Glastonbury Tor, we grow bush cider apple cultivators together with desert apples and pears.
Cider Farm
Formerly a 17th century farm, the original stone outbuildings, together with the cider barn built in 1914, forms the cider farm. Having been little altered in over a century, the cider barn simply oozes history, and it is one of the few places where cider is served straight from the wooden barrel.
Ciders & Perrys
Our ciders are 'wild'!
Fermented with the wild yeast from the fruit, orchard and cider farm, the taste and flavour of our ciders and perry truly represent the unique character of the region’s microflora.
We are committed to producing farmhouse and single varietal ciders and perry of the highest quality in accordance with the traditional style crafted by our forefathers.
Passionate of our craft, we will only release our ciders and perry for sale once we believe they have reached their highest flavour and aroma complexity.
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| Picture: Hecks Family |
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