OUR STORY
ALL ABOUT US
Raised on his parents’ vineyard in Suffolk, David started St Ives Cider with his wife Kate in 2012, and combined his wine-making experience with traditional cider techniques to produce refined artisan ciders.
Each harvest sees David tow the trailer-mounted press to a collection of orchards to press on site. This keeps food miles to an absolute minimum and the dry pomace can go back on the land or be fed to the local livestock. We have found some rare varieties of apple trees and stunning forgotten orchards where this amazing fruit would otherwise go to waste.
As a “hands on” cidermaker every stage of creating our small batch ciders is overseen by David resulting in awards from Taste of the West, South West Cidermakers Association, the International Cider Challenge and the World Cider Awards.
We passionately believe in the humble apple and our aim is to showcase its subtle complexities rather than lose them behind stronger fruit flavours. We focus on what we do best – making 100% juice, small batch ciders that stand out from the competition.
St Ives Cider – Increasing Production
In May 2016, St Ives Cider was awarded grant funding to increase production. As the Beneficiary of an approved LEADER project we were able to purchase a trailer mounted press and other specialised equipment which enabled us to press apples on site at a number of local orchards and create a new range of apple juice in 750ml and 250ml bottles.
The equipment has been instrumental in our mission to reduce food miles, reduce waste and source as locally as possible; making use of otherwise lost harvests.
Source of funding: 2014-2020 LEADER Grant Funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) which contributes funds to the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).
