How do we make our cider?
Ever wondered how cider is made? We've got the inside information from our amazing winemaker, Norman Lever. He has created a cider range that’s brimming with flavour and bears the trademark of our orchard’s unique location in rural Victoria. From our traditional, full-bodied West Country- style cider to the light, bright freshness of our New World variety, the Trattore range is both sophisticated and exciting.
How is cider made?
Obviously, it begins with apples (or pears, if we’re talking pear cider) being grown and then harvested. For us, it’s all about the fruit. As an established, multi-generational family orchard, we have an incredible depth of knowledge around apple varieties. We select the best quality apples from the most suitable varieties for cider making, and we bring forth the character of these different apples through ciders that display rich flavour and aroma. Our apples are totally unique in their flavour profile and reflect the Gippsland soil and climate.
'We press whole apples and carefully ferment them in temperature-controlled tanks right here at our orchard. To achieve the perfect balance of sweetness, we add more fresh apple juice after fermentation, and we avoid conventional preservatives,' explains Norman.
'We aim to show the best characters of the apple varieties used and make ciders that display a rich flavour and aroma, balancing that with the way it feels in the mouth.'
Our team has experimented with fermentation for many years now and have a deep knowledge of fermentation science. We are incredibly proud of our award-winning collection of semi-sweet boutique ciders.
Traditional versus ‘new’ methods
At Trattore, we use some of the best traditional apple varieties to craft our West Country cider. This cider is bold, bitey, strong in flavour and a great accompaniment with food.
Our New World cider, on the other hand, incorporate more technology and innovative practices and are generally made with sweeter ‘dessert’ apples. Our own New World cider shows fresh, clean and aromatic characters, and is appley and aromatic without being overly syrupy.
We also have a fantastic pear cider — Earthen Pear — in our lineup. Pear cider (also known as “perry”) tends to be a little lighter than apple cider, and ours is no exception. Earthen Pear is made exclusively from fresh pears and displays a delicate character that is refreshing, crisp, herbaceous and very easy to drink.
And, just to keep things interesting, our Zero cider is made from fresh-pressed traditional cider apples almost like a traditional cider — but using some unconventional and revolutionary technology that ferments the cider without producing alcohol. The result is a sweet, juicy, mouth-filling, zero-alcohol cider that tastes a little like apple pie.
All Trattore products are made right here on our working orchard in Officer, where we grow, crush, ferment and bottle ourselves. Every bottle of cider contains years of sunshine, rain, hard work and care.