Dunkerton's Cider

Ivor Dunkerton won't be chopping down the trees that supply him with apples and pears for his organic ciders and perries. He and his wife Susie have put money, passion and a large chunk of their lives into their cider.

But the varieties of fruit they grow - Binet Rouge, Brown Snout, Cider Ladies Finger, Foxwhelp, Merrylegs, Moorcroft, Roi de Pomme, Sheeps Nose and Yarlington Mill, varieties that are centuries old, many going back to Celtic times - are under threat as farmers crank up the diggers and tractors to destroy their orchards.

The Dunkertons won't stop making cider at Luntley in Herefordshire, but it's a different story for farmers who don't produce alcohol and just grow fruit. As a result of a weird interpretation - some say misinterpretation - of new EU rules by Defra, the ungainly Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, farmers stand to gain by grubbing up their orchards and turning them into open farmland.

A new EU grants scheme, ironically designed to protect the environment and cut down on much-abused subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy, is destined to have the opposite effect in Britain. If farmers destroy their orchards by January of next year, they will get 20 a hectare for 2005 and then 340 a hectare a year in perpetuity. But any orchards left standing will be worth no more than land value and will get no government payouts.

The crisis in cider-making areas is the result of the confusion sewn by Defra. Some farmers think only modern bush trees -the type grown on the Dunkertons' land - are under threat. Others believe traditional tall trees will also have to go, while still more think farms with tall trees that have ancient grazing rights will be exempt. Simple, intelligible statements from Defra could sort out the confusion, but the department seems incapable of explaining exactly which farms will be affected by its proposals. If you thought the old Min of Ag was bad, try dealing with Margaret Beckett's new giant quango.

Ivor Dunkerton told me that the farmer on neighbouring land is already planning to destroy his apple orchards. If this happens throughout the apple-growing regions of England, the outcome can only strengthen the grip on cider production exercised by the Big Two producers, Bulmer and Matthew Clark, best known for Strongbow and Dry Blackthorn. They use large amounts of imported apple concentrate in their keg ciders and will increase the amount of concentrate they buy if the supply of English cider apples falls dramatically.

One reason why the Dunkertons won't be hiring any diggers to grub up their orchards is that they didn't inherit any trees when they moved to Herefordshire. The previous owners of the farm had been teetotal and had dug up all their apple and pear trees.

Ivor Dunkerton was a top BBC television producer. His credits include working for such flagship programmes as Panorama and Tonight: he covered the Six Day War in the Middle East in 1967 for Panorama with a young reporter called Michael Parkinson.

But Ivor got tired of being away from home. So he left the BBC, Susie gave up her job in theatre administration and they bought a 17th-century cottage in Luntley with two 400 year-old timber frame barns and settled there in 1981 with their two young sons and Ivor's mother. They also had 18 acres of land and decided to grow trees that would produce cider apples and perry pears.

When you have planted seedlings, nurtured them -and it takes several years for perry pear trees in particular to produce suitable fruit -you do become rather attached to them. They have brought back such rare varieties as Bloody Turk and Kingston Black. This is why the Dunkerton's trees will stay firmly in the ground and there'll be no annual cheque from Margaret Beckett.

Early on, Ivor and Susie decided they wouldn't just sell cider at the farm gate but would market it more widely. As well as draught products, they also put cider and perry into attractive bottles with eye-catching labels and, in some cases, drawn corks. The message was clear: this is wine made by craftsmen and should be treated as such.

They make cider and perry by pressing the fruit and fermenting the juice of separate varieties, storing them in cask, and then blending them to produce different aromas and flavours. There is one single varietal cider called Organic Black Fox. Julian Temperley, one of the leading independent cider makers at Burrow Hill in Somerset, fulminates against the EU/Defra plans. He quotes fellow cider maker John Thatcher, who has said there will be a bonfire of orchards unless Defra changes its attitude.

Orange and olive groves in Europe are exempt from the rules, Julian says, so are hop farms in England. But orchards of apples, pears, cherries and plums are treated the same as car parks.

Cider has been made at Burrow Hill for 150 years, with Julian in charge for more than 30. Hes famous not only for draught and bottle-fermented ciders but also his distilled apple brandies. He says the local village of Kingsbury Episcopi will lose 75 acres of apple orchards when trees are destroyed.

The diversity of cider orchards will be lost, he says. The best apples come from old orchards rather than modern bush tree apples. Its also an environmental issue the countryside will lose its biodiversity.

Julian and other independent cider makers are busily lobbying Defra in an attempt to get the rules changed before more orchards are grubbed up. He is desperately worried that independent cider making in England could be wiped out.

The industrial cider makers dont need apples, he says. The apple content of their ciders continues to decline as they use apple waste from producers in Normandy.

But craft cider makers need to be seen as whole juice makers, using proper, traditional apples. We have to save the soul and the mystique of cider making.

A new modern cidery was built in recent years, with juice stored in stainless steel vats, but the aim remains the same. "We're deep into flavour here," Ivor says. "Our ciders really taste of apples."

They decided to convert to organic production as they had seen at first hand the damage done to the environment by pesticides and fertilisers. "In the 20-plus years we've lived in Herefordshire, the wild life has been decimated,"Ivor says. "Curlews and yellowhammers have disappeared completely and I haven't seen a hare in years." The problem will get worse as a result of Defra's scheme: fewer trees will mean a reduced habitat for birds and insects, further upsetting the balance of nature.

As well as growing their own organic fruit, the Dunkertons buy from farmers who have gone over to organic production. They produce a large amount of bottled cider for Waitrose as well as specialist organic and health food shops. The draught versions are also widely available and can be sampled and taken away from the on-site shop.

One delightful way to sample the products is to have a meal in the Dunkerton's excellent Cider House restaurant (see reviews). There are fine views from the restaurant over the gently undulating countryside with trees in all directions - trees that are staying rooted in the ground.