A grand time tasting 'cider done right'

ADGE Cutler sang: “I am a cider drinker.” Well, I’m not. Actually, I don’t even drink nowadays, and I was still working out on the journey how to tell the folk at Sandford Orchards, who had invited me to a Tour and Tasting Evening.

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It didn’t help that we were mid satnav row as we pulled into the Cider Works in Crediton. With some hazy memories of filming for Westward Television 40 years ago, at Killerton, I think, I was expecting a 200-year-old wooden wheel press in a barn set in orchards, not a huge restored old red brick building down a dusty lane!

Well, yet again, satnav, and husband, were right. There were people sitting round tables in the sunshine, enjoying what I assumed must be cider! Well, no sooner had I revealed my dark secret to the Emma, the wondrous Events Manager, than a huge glass of chilled Red Zero alcohol-free cider was pressed into my hands. Forget that Cidrax of your youth and all the thin, fizzy, flavoured pop that has you stifling burps all night, this was nectar, and had all my points!