With the brothers Wells conspicuous by their abscence (are they out there right now, spreading fireblight?), Albert has an opportunity to talk to Dr Kathryn Bruce, a social historian of horticulture and plant science who recently completed her PhD at the University of St Andrews. Kathryn's PhD had the title "The Fireblight Menace: Knowledge communities and their response to crop disease in the Anglo-world, 1880-1939", which attracted Albert's fascination as rapidly as new growth in a Gin Pear tr...
Jul 03, 2025•56 min•Ep. 47
Whilst Albert heads to Westminster, Justin and Adam recruit Little Pomona's James Forbes to chat about all things fortified in the cider category. James has just brought out his first Mistelle, Fomo (even if he's forgotten it today) and we learn how an 'alarming' coloured cider led to one of the most hyped releases of the last couple of years. Just and Adam are both card-carrying fans of all things fortified, and we chat about styles, approaches, ways to drink them and fortifieds with food. Plus...
Mar 22, 2025•50 min•Ep. 46
An anxiety pulling up of my socks, with Martin Johnson We continue to mine our families for quality cider content, and this time it’s Albert’s turn to provide a relative, in the shape of his fellow @rosscider maker, @yewtreepeterstow supremo and, coincidentally, brother, Martin Johnson. We discuss the running of a perfect cider pub, and everything Martin has done to transform the Yew Tree into just that. Storage and service of cider, how to get drinkers to give new things a try and bringing cide...
Mar 14, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 45
The plight of the hapless cidermaker, with Caroline Wells For absolutely definitely 100% the first time ever on the show, we reveal that Justin and Adam have started their own cidermaking project, Three Wells Cider, and we’re joined by their business partner, cidermaking colleague and fellow Wells, Caroline, to tell you all about it. From being accidentally compelled to become craft drinks producers after buying a pair of blundstones to dodging storms, breaking mills, grey-faced conversations ab...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 44
Liberty to Cider – with Elisha Mason We take an apple-tinted journey into the past with our guest this week, Elisha Mason, @museumofcider Archives and Collections Officer. Leading us into the mysterious (and, apparently, heavily haunted) archives and cellars of the magnificent Museum of Cider in Hereford, Elisha talks us through British Cider Riots, and how they inspired revolution in America, dream teapots and finding an unexpected foot in a box (different museum…) Continuing to answer the big ...
Jan 11, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 43
After receiving an eloquent letter of encouragement from one of our 12 listeners, we re-run our extremely thorough and official tournament for the greatest cider apple or perry pear. Bigger, better, with no apples off the table and two bonus judges in @helenannesmith and @ratchellle, this is Pome Total War, with apples and pears judged on every factor – taste, yield, vibes, name, treacherousness and level of freckles. Who’ll triumph in Bulmers Norman vs Thorn II? Just how perfect is Porter’s Per...
Dec 19, 2024•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 42
Once again we dive into the inspiring international scene, this time learning all about cider in Japan thanks to our guest Lee Reeve, @inciderjapan. We talk through Japan’s cider beginnings in the 1950s, its modern movement that began around 2017 and the different styles, makers, places and inspirations behind modern Japanese cider. From French-style keeves to English bittersweets, from Fuji apples to wild indigenous varieties found in the mountain forests, there’s so much going on here to explo...
Nov 04, 2024•42 min•Ep. 41
It’s about time we dug into one of the world’s biggest cider cultures – and the only only outside the UK with a large concentration of bittersweet and bittersharp cider apples – France. So who better to catch up with than Virginie Thomas of @bouscule_tes_sens – author, consultant, advocate and trainer? We cover all things French cider, chat through some of the similarities in how the drink’s perceived in the UK and France, then talk about writing a world cider guide during a pandemic, doing tast...
Oct 16, 2024•51 min•Ep. 40
Sep 28, 2024•42 min•Ep. 39
We level up once again this week as we welcome international cider dignitary Darlene Hayes to Cider Voice. One of the most important and influential figures in the American and now global cider revolution, Darlene has played a central role in expanding cider education, especially through the Certified Cider Guide and Certified Pommelier Programmes. We talk through Darlene's introduction to cider, burrow down a rabbit hole of varietal curiosity (with a shoutout to Albert's new Sherrington Norman)...
Sep 25, 2024•58 min•Ep. 38
With Albert on Freya-watch, Adam and Justin decide to celebrate a year of Cider Voice by learning how to actually podcast, and chatting to our secret producer, Neutral Cider Hotel's Martyn Goodwin Sharman, aka @cidershit Cue a wide-ranging chat with someone who's watched the aspirational cider revolution first-hand for almost a decade. Everything from Daniel Craig ice lollies to cider tie-die t-shirts, not really caring about varieties (sorry Albert) and the question of how to get people to care...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 37
It's been a year since we relaunched Cider Voice and to celebrate, Albert's holding a massive festival at the farm and launching 14 special edition ciders. In this episode we run through all the festival releases, from the last of a particular perry pear ever to be grown on the farm to an apple that isn't called Hagloe Lobster. Has Albert been coerced into releasing a perry by Adam? And is Ross-on-Wye just becoming a sea of acid. Have a listen to discover this year's full festival release rundow...
Aug 26, 2024•58 min•Ep. 36
‘The wobbler’. ‘The shakey shakey’. ‘Ladder method’. ‘Plank method’. ‘Squolch’. What does it all mean? With harvest rapidly incoming, Albert and the Cousins Wells sit down to discuss the vital topic of Toil. The physical business of making cider is, we feel, much underdiscussed. But between Adam’s leather jacket and Justin’s ‘hands more suited to picking up cake’ we feel we’re the people to do it. From trees that are laughing at you, to trailers that won’t tip their apples, splishy-splashy filth...
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 35
The team pull a late one for an extra exciting episode with a serious time difference as we catch up with Camilla Humphries (@camillas_crush) cider maker, expert and advocate in Mornington Peninsular, Australia. We see almost none of Australia’s amazing cider scene here in the UK so Camilla gives us the full rundown from climate to apples to the inspirational Cider Australia (@cideraustralia) movement. We also learn about her travels around the cider regions and orchards of the world on a resear...
Aug 07, 2024•57 min•Ep. 34
The team welcome a transatlantic cider rock star to the pod for this episode as they're joined by Eleanor Leger, co-founder and owner of Vermont's @ edenciders We talk about all things ice cider and how Eden experiment with this magnificent dessert cider style. Plus the economics of fine cider, and how Eden have diversified over the years whilst staying true to their full juice roots. Having experimented with British varieties we talk about the different flavours they produce in American terroir...
Aug 02, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 33
It's the 44th episode of Cider Voice and in Albert's absence thanks to his exciting new role we have a huge question: do we finally have a 13th listener? To celebrate we're joined by whisky writer and new Cider Review contributor Beatrix Swanson . Bea talks to Justin and Adam about growing up in Germany's apfelwein country and how she joined the cider community. We extol the virtues of the bagnum and ponder whether cider and perry might be the ultimate drinks for Gen Z. Since, like all the best ...
Jul 26, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 32
Well, it's another Albertless episode, but that doesn't hold Justin and Adam back from interviewing the once and future Cider Critic James Finch of Chapel Sider and Cider Review fame! They discuss Chapel Sider's origin and future, James' love of orchards, and the vicissitudes of cider writing and advocacy, along with a bit of a retrospective on Cider Review and how it came about. Not to mention the legendary Fine Cider Fridays 👀 What's next on the radar for James? Will Justin keep asking questi...
Jul 23, 2024•59 min•Ep. 31
With the whole CV team back together again we thought about doing an earnest and serious conversation about apple and pear varieties. But with all the sport on we changed our mind and turned it into a knockout tournament to discover the greatest (British) cider apple or perry pear of them all. Pitting 32 contenders against each other, Adam tasks Justin and Albert with finding the ultimate. Thorn vs Bulmers Norman? Egremont Russet vs Yellow Huffcap? Moorcroft vs Kingston Black? Stoke Red vs Butt?...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 30
In this episode Justin and Adam demand the finest ciders available to humanity and they want them here and they want them now, so who better to speak to than Felix Nash, founder of the Fine Cider Company. We talk the 10-year development of Fine Cider, the ways Felix has found to bring restaurants round to the concept, parallels with and differences to fine wine, the new Fine Cider Shop in London and the importance of getting the public on board via events like the upcoming Stockport Cider Salon....
Jul 03, 2024•57 min•Ep. 29
With Adam still MIA, Justin and Albert make it all the way to the top, sitting down with the godfather of aspirational cider, Mr Tom Oliver @ tomoliverscider . Drawing on Tom's wealth of knowledge and abundant wit we chat adventures in America, ordering everything on the menu and the increasing importance of aspirational cider on keg. As a kindred Herefordshire cidermaker Albert and Tom compare notes on the importance of the stamp of the maker, the recent inaugural edition of Cider School, pride...
Jun 30, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 28
Absolute cider royalty comes to the pod this week as Justin and Albert are joined by Alison Taffs, head honcho at multi-award-winning might-as-well-keep-the-trophy cider pub The Hop Inn. We talk about Alison and Justin's shared background as drama students at Mountview, and how that armed them to become tasting host extraordinaires, we touch on managing alcohol intake when working in the drinks industry and Alison schools us on what makes good hospitality. Only momentarily distracted by Justin l...
Jun 21, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 27
In the latest instalment of 'Seminal Ciders' Adam catches up with someone who's been writing about cider even longer than he has – Natalia of @ciderexplorer. Based in Germany, Natalia's been covering the continental cider scene since 2017, shining a light on central European cider cultures as well as countries whose cider doesn't always get a spotlight. We talk about the cider that got her started, the current state of German cider, the magical event that is @CiderWorld, the first cider she ever...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 26
Albert and Adam sit down to chat with Gabe Cook aka The Ciderologist on everything from his origins in the cider world, to the state of bittersweet cider, to education in cider and perry and the way forward. Part trip down memory lane and part assessment of the current British cider scene. Join Gabe's substack: https://theciderologist.substack.com/ Sign up for the Certified Cider Professional Programme here: https://www.theciderologist.com/pages/certified-cider-professional-programme BBC Natural...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 25
Albert’s away again so it all goes off the rails – Adam’s distracted by how good a cider is and Justin’s gone for a sauna. But then we rein it back in and chat about Justin’s first experience leading a cider and perry tasting – ‘an introduction to Herefordshire.’ We talk what he served, what he learned, preferences and preconceptions and and Gin Pear/Cookie Dough Affogato. Planning a tasting with some of your own friends? This is the episode for you. Albert toils @ rosscider @adamhwells spoils @...
May 23, 2024•53 min•Ep. 24
For the third instalment of our 'this is your life, but in cider' series, Adam finally stops just talking to co-hosts and sits down with drinks writer Rachel Hendry ( @ratchellle ), who is definitely appearing in a full-length cider voice episode for the first time. With absolutely no technical hitches whatsoever we cover accidentally becoming an award-winning beer writer, the relationships between pub regulars and the staff who work in those pubs, ciders so good they make you scream and the tri...
May 17, 2024•55 min•Ep. 23
In the second part of our series on the drinks that shaped our journey in cider, it’s Albert’s turn to reveal the bottles that have most impacted him. Shockingly, three of them are Ross-on-Wye – though Albert didn't actually press the apples in any of them, though he helped bottle and shape the latter two. Even more shockingly however, two of the ciders aren’t Ross-on-Wye's at all! In this episode we learn the bottle ‘that did it’ for Albert and the two Ross-on-Wyes that shaped his cider making ...
May 07, 2024•52 min•Ep. 22
In our new episode we finally sit down and get properly technical (ish) thanks to Laurence Cocking, former winemaker now cidermaker extraordinaire at @ littlepomona . In other news, we get an earth-shattering four emails from listeners – and it turns out we’ve had one of them since February. Justin and Adam refuse to skip the banal bit. Laurence brings traditional method know how, ably supported by Justin’s advice on ‘blasting the dead yeast cells out’. And Albert wants to know just how damn big...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 5 min
This time, Justin, Adam and Albert go on a walk through the complex world of bittersweet (and bittersharp) cider. Armed with questions, praise and a few fairly satisfactory answers, our earnest trio attempt to define dryness, get technical about tannins, try to figure out polyphenols, and ponder the platonic ideal of corner shop snack pairings... with only a mere couple of digressions about punts and cheese. Ciders from Skyborry Cider & Ross-on-Wye Albert is bitter @ rosscider Adam is sharp ...
Apr 25, 2024•1 hr 25 min
The team debriefs after a truly epic craftcon. We try to choose favourite moments – from Albert’s grey face to Justin’s journey home to Adam pretending to understand the science of tannins. We celebrate the marvellous positivity, dynamism and curiosity that craftcon instils in the British – and Italian! – cider communities, and we deviate seamlessly into a discussion of ourpomona.org, and the ways we can reach out and connect for the 363 days a year we don’t get to be at craftcon. Ciders by @ to...
Apr 15, 2024•49 min
In this mini-episode Adam runs out of both co-hosts and synonyms for superlatives as he sits down to chat with two of the pod's best friends, Helen Anne Smith and Rachel Hendry of Burum Collective. We talk through their newly-launched collaboration ciders with Little Pomona: what they are, why they were made, what the process was and how come one of them just wouldn't sparkle? Along the way we touch on Burum's ongoing work to promote free education and inclusivity in hospitality, the importance ...
Apr 03, 2024•16 min•Ep. 21
