Siider

Zeihen, Switzerland

Based at the southern end of the Jura mountain chain, brothers Cyrill and Ivan were left their grandfather's orchard in 2013. Cyril is a winemaker and Ivan an arborist, and from the outset they knew they wanted to make ciders from totally untreated fruit and bottle it with zero additives.

Their area has a long tradition of growing and making cider but that had almost disappeared over the previous two or three generations leaving a wealth of old apple trees with ancient cider varieties essentially abandoned.

In their grandfather's orchard the brothers planted 50 fungus-resistant apple varieties in 2014 and in 2016 the orchard was certified organic. The new plantings will take 10-15 years to begin producing fruit.

Today the brothers work with around 30 varieties of apple and pear. The fruit comes from their own orchard, a couple of organic orchards owned by friends and several wild and abandoned trees in the area. All of the trees they work with receive zero treatments of any kind — not even organic preparations. Cherries are also sometimes used.

The soils here at the southern end of the Jura mountain chain are always very young, alkaline and chalky. This is completely different to the ancient decomposed schist and mica that is found in vineyards closer to the alps in and around Valais, for example.

Fruit trees in the area are typically always on the northern slopes of the hills, whereas the south-facing sides were reserved for vineyards.

Cyrill and Ivan are lucky to work with old trees and very old cider varieties and are driven by making precise ciders and allowing them plenty of time for maturation and elevage. On top of this, the cider making centres around clean, washed fruit and elevage in very good quality wine barrels.

All of the the ciders are influenced by the limestone terroir. They're all bolt-upright, ripe but with thrilling acidity and are all bone-dry. In some cases the fruit is lightly macerated and direct pressed in all others.

They are particularly good with food.

 

Information on previous wines

  • A blend of roughly 20 varieties of apple and pear, all grown on calcereous soils. Fruit is pressed off after a light maceration and run to barrel to ferment until dry. A secondary fermentation then takes place in bottle following the addition of an amount of partially fermented juice from the same harvest that had been resting in a pressurised tank. The wine is then disgorged and allowed a year of elevage in bottle.

    2019 Dry, direct and restrained.

    2018 Lightly phenolic, with lots of complexity of fruit mixed with savoury nuances of skins and elevage.

  • From an old German variety of apple that fruits bi-annually and has particularly thick skins. Vinified as a still wine with a year of elevage in barrel.

    2020 Fruity and vinous, with elegant phenolics and good supporting acidity.

    2018 Given six days of cold maceration before being pressed and left to ferment and evolve for 19 months in a single old barrique. Vinous – similar to chenin blanc or riesling in structure – with low PH and a cleansing, supple and round palate. The year and a half in barrel has allowed the phenolics to really polymerise and drop out giving the cider exceptional elegance and poise.

  • 2020 From an old German variety of apple that fruits bi-anually and has particularly thick skins. Layers of yellow fruit supported by salinity and direct acidity.

  • Sparkling apple cider from an old Dutch variety of apple renowned for its acidity which each year creates the most direct style of wine from the domaine.

    2020 Present but very fine tannins, with a nervous and tense style of fruit.

    2018 Present but very fine tannins, with a nervous and tense style of fruit.

  • 50/50 apple and pear, sparkling.

    2020 Saw 6 months in barrel before secondary fermentation. Chalky, with direct acidity.

    2018 Clear salinity, with ripe phenolic matter. Driven by acidity and chalkiness that speaks more of apple than sweet pear.

  • 2020 Sparkling apple and sour cherry. The cherry lends a level of spice to the palate, which otherwise remains taut and fresh.

  • Apples and pears grown on calcereous soil. Made using the same fruit – seven varieties of apple and three of pear – as the Siider Trocken but kept still and given another year of elevage in barrel.

    2019 Elegant, with supple texture and delicacy of fruit. Similar to chenin blanc or white Burgundy in structure. More concentrated than 2018. 7.4% abv.

    2018 Delicate and elegant, with supple texture. Similar to chenin blanc or white Burgundy in structure.

  • 2020 Sparkling off-dry cider with a concentrated structure balancing sugar and direct acidity.