Cider production wasn’t in their business plan when Ralph and Judy Wilson purchased their apple and cherry business, Wilgro Orchard near Batlow 32 years ago.
They are not generational apple growers, having grown up away from the high country town: they moved to Batlow when Judy was posted as a teacher and Ralph secured a position as a field officer with Mountain Maid, a local cannery.
“We liked the area and ended up buying this orchard,” Ralph said.
On their 42ha, they have 12ha of orchard on which are grown three main varieties of apples … Gala, a new variety called Kanzi and Pink Lady … along with other varieties and cherries.
“In today’s market you’ve got to be doing something different, you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing,” Ralph noted.
The Wilson’s are growing varieties which are unknown at present but Ralph said they will be popular in the next four or five years.
“We want to be in the vanguard with those new varieties,” he said.
“Most of our production is consumed by the domestic market, with exports coming from Tasmania, SA and WA.”
Besides their fresh fruit, the Wilson’s have also made apple juice in a move to diversify.
“About six or seven years ago, things weren’t too good in the apple industry … they still aren’t if you are growing older varieties … so we sat down and analysed our business,” Ralph said.
“Basically we said we have to do something different.”
One of the potential avenues identified was to ‘value-add’ their products, and because some of their fruit being packed for domestic sale had a component of what is termed ‘juice fruit’, Ralph realised it was not even covering the cost of growing and packing.
“We thought about what we could do with that fruit to ‘value-add’ and the three options we basically came up with were … to juice our fruit, produce apple-cider-vinegar and produce cider,” he said.
Whilst the production of apple juice and apple-cider-vinegar constitutes a considerable impact on the Wilson’s buisness, Ralph and Judy can see enormous potential in their cider enterprise.
“We are looking at a boutique operation where we take our apples and juice them in our purpose-built shed … we then ferment the juice and bottle our own cider,” Ralph said.
“We have blended the juice from different apples to get the flavours we want and we are now growing English and French cider apple varieties.”
It is an exciting prospect for the Wilgro operation with the 2018 vintage the first in which the cider is produced from the specifically grown apple varieties, and will be available in 2019.
The cider making process occurs during autumn when the apples are crushed and the juice is fermented and stored in stainless-steel tanks until it is bottled as needed.
“I think the Australian market for cider has huge potential, and as their palates mature consumers will be seeking a better product,” he said.
In an extension to their existing cider brands, Ralph and Judy are trialing the production of ice cider as another component of their enterprise.
In today’s market you’ve got to be doing something different, you can’t be doing what everyone else is doing
- Ralph Wilson
‘Ice cider’ is another method of making cider in areas where the apples freeze, thaw and freeze in sequence before they are picked: quite common in the northern hemisphere, but unknown in the south.
“Each time the apples freeze and thaw, a lot of moisture is taken out and eventually when the fruit is crushed it leaves a highly concentrated juice,” Ralph said.
“It is then fermented as you would for normal cider production but you end with a more flavourable cider.”
He did point out ice cider has a higher alcohol content which might limit it’s appeal, but nevertheless is gaining an international reputation.
“We don’t have the climate here in Australia which causes the apples to freeze, but in places like England cider producers are juicing the apples and freezing the juice,” Ralph said. “The best way is to either freeze the apples or freeze the juice and that way you get a good clean cider.”
Ice cider has a higher alcohol content, but according to Ralph Wilson it has a more intense flavour.
Ralph and Judy Wilson are currently the only cider producer in Batlow and they will have their products available for consumption during the forthcoming Batlow CiderFest on 19 May.
“We are selling a story,” Ralph said. “People come to our orchard and are looking for the experience of knowing where their fruit or their cider comes from.”
