Thornborough Yorkshire Cider

In 2007, Kingsley gave up a successful job in the music industry in London and decided to move to Yorkshire to start a family. Settling near Masham, Kingsley helped out at a nearby estate, which had an awful lot of apple trees, as well as lecturing on music at Leeds University. Kingsley observed that every autumn many apples were left lying on the ground, rotting and going to waste. He decided to use them instead!

Collecting up all the unwanted apples, he mashed them, pressed them, and made his first batch of cider. And so Kingsley’s cider was born.

It wasn’t long before he bought an antique cider press off Ebay, and modified his garden shredder to help mash up the apples. By 2009, he’d moved to Thornborough, near Bedale, to a house with 12 apple trees, and what was originally a hobby soon became time-consuming, forcing him to give up lecturing and concentrate exclusively on making his ‘Thornborough Cider’.

He now has 600 trees planted in an orchard and accepts donations of eating or cooking apples from anywhere within Yorkshire. Not using cider apples (commonly used by cider-makers throughout the country), means his cider has a gentle sparkle and crisp dry finish, and is lighter and fresher than the heavier, more powerful ‘scrumpy’ types found in Somerset and Herefordshire.

Kingsley makes his cider using traditional methods including using a cloth and rack press to extract the apple juice. The unfiltered apple juice (over 90% in this cider – some ciders are as low as 35%!) ferments through the Yorkshire winter in stainless steel vats, creating alcohol using only the natural yeast present on the apple skins. In spring the cider is bottled with a little more yeast, so it gains an extra sparkle in the bottle.

Unfiltered, unfined and unpasteurised, the cider will throw a sediment and appear cloudy. No added sulphites.

330ml or 750ml 6.5% abv

You must be over 18 to purchase this product.

This wine is sold by Buon Vino and dispatched to arrive at the same time as your cheese. If you’d like to choose any other wine from them to be delivered at the same time (included in the delivery charge), please have a look at their website and telephone The Courtyard Dairy on 01729 823 291 to place your order.