You wouldn’t know this, because the road is quiet and suburban, but Tilehurst is home to Seven Trees Cider, tucked away just off the number 17 bus route. The name comes from the little orchard in the lovely garden of Andy and Ann Williams, both horticulturalists by trade. Each of the trees bears a different variety of apple, all of them were grafted by Andy and all of them are carefully nurtured and respected.
Seven Trees has been selling cider since 2021. Their Orchard Press cider, a traditional West Country style of cider, has been awarded Silver medal at the past two British Cider Championships which is an annual event at the Royal Bath and West Show. Seven Trees were also awarded a gold medal for their Orchard Gold, a sweet cider which was a collaboration with Rick Wyatt, formerly of Pang Valley Cider. Reading Press is their Eastern Counties style cider which is made from dessert apples all harvested locally within RG postcodes. It is clear that a lot of work has gone into these past few years and as I discover, there is a deep passion for cider and producing an excellent local product that steers Andy’s focus.
Andy welcomes me and takes me through to the kitchen. Through the back window I can see the pretty garden, chickens roaming about, the family cat perched nearby. Seven Trees are small batch cider producers. I suppose you could call it craft cider if you wanted to. They produce just shy of 2000 litres of cider a year, which means they are exempt from duty.
Andy tells me that he is keen to keep his production at this level: he is free to experiment, free of the ties and commitments of larger scale production, which he knows is difficult right now. He mentions Tutts Clump. “You know, Tim Wale is a Berkshire cider maker, at a national scale, who has won awards. He is in the supermarkets and has a dedicated customer base. It’s very tough out there right now.” There is no denying that.
I messaged Andy several months ago and asked if he’d be interested in speaking to me and featuring in Mine’s A Pint. Cider, I said, is underrepresented and despite Reading having an incredible cider writer in Adam Wells, I’m conscious that we don’t talk about cider enough and must do more. I tell Andy that because cider writing isn’t particularly common, I’d had a great response to Mine’s A Pint’s recent Tutts Clump article and that I hoped this piece would also be shared across CAMRA publications, winning Seven Trees new fans.
I ask the most obvious question: what got Andy into making cider?
“I’m a West Country boy, so I’ve always enjoyed cider. We moved to Reading in 1999 and lived up on Park Lane. There was a big Bramley apple tree at the bottom of the garden. Our neighbour told us that a lot of the land towards Park Lane used to be nursery land: we were told that the trees were planted all along the road and actually when you looked up you could see them all along the back gardens nearby.
“So we had this bountiful supply of Bramley apples and one of the neighbours said her father had planted a lot of them. Around the same time, I volunteered at a festival, in a cider tent. There was a stand that talked about the history of cider and it was remarkable really, the volume and amount of orchards back in the 1700s in Berkshire. So I just thought I’d make some cider with the apples in the garden.
“I had a small press and I was just kind of playing around with it, just experimenting. I didn’t really have the time though, back then, as our kids were small. So I had this long period where I didn’t do anything cider related but the kids grew up, so five or six years ago I started to think maybe I could play with cider again.”
Andy has always loved cider and, as a horticulturalist, he loves the land. Genuine enthusiasm for the earth is written all over his face as he talks about the raw materials.
“There is such a rich history of cider producing in Berkshire, but there are very few of us that are still going. Very few. As an area we are never without apples and even here I get neighbours knock on my door and bringing me apples. We should be doing something with it.”
So why Seven Trees I ask?
“Well, because we have seven different cider varieties and trees in our garden so it felt like the right name for the business. I’ve been growing my own trees for a little while now, and there are also orchards I harvest from in Great Shefford and Lower Basildon.”
Originally from Bristol, Andy and his wife Ann have always loved cider. Living in Reading wasn’t suppose to be forever. “It was only meant to be for a short while, but it’s now been 25 years now.” I say that this is what Reading does: it pulls you in.
“Yeah and I like Reading. The local beer scene is just incredible, we are really lucky. But I guess it’s part of the history of Reading and I do remember just before the Oracle was being built, there being a brewery near there. And of course Courage was on the M4, so I guess it’s in the towns blood. “
I can see the seven trees from the kitchen window and Andy invites me to step outside and take a closer look. The chickens have laid some eggs on the grass. The first tree in his orchard is the Morgan Sweet,a tree with a rich history within Andy’s family.
His father lived in Bristol after the second world war and remembers picking apples from his great uncles house. “So, you know, there’s a little bit of family history with the Morgan Sweet variety. It’s a nice apple and lovely to juice with, like a dual purpose apple.”
Andy tends to the trees carefully, and tells me that his wife Ann is a big supporter of what he is trying to achieve here – they are in it together. “This tree is the Yarlington Mill. You can see that my wife is a real supporter of what we are trying to do but she does insist that I make sure the pathway is clear! She draws a line at that. I prune the trees very carefully. This apple, has a beautifully soft tannin that makes a delightful cider either as a single variety or in the blend – you get these wonderful caramel notes that come through. That was always going to be on the list as a tree I would want to plant.”
Ann is from Somerset and loves cider too. “She’s very active in helping me with this process – and she picks apples with me as well.”
Andy shows me another variety, Sweet Alford. “It’s a full sweet cider apple which originated in Devon – it is beginning to crop reliably and well which is great. This one is Kingston Black which is a bitter-sharp cider variety with somewhat legendary status in the cider world because as a single variety cider its juice naturally contains a balance of acidity and tannin.”
We work our way across the garden and the trees in the orchard. “This is Tremlett’s Bitter which is a full bittersweet, another Devon variety. It has genuinely become biennial in the garden setting which I just hadn’t appreciated. It’s a very strong and upright tree. All trees are grown on MM106 (semi-dwarfing) rootstocks.”
We then come to Black Dabinett, a tree that Andy tells me is a late bloomer and late to harvest and also a bittersweet. He said that it crops very well, and has already developed a biennial tendency.
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The seventh tree is Michelin which Andy describes as “a bit of a workhorse as it fruits regularly but has a reputation of not being too distinct or the most interesting of apples. It’s said to be used more for bulking juice.”
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I ask whether this makes it versatile. “I think so – it’s quite easy to grow and it tends to crop quickly. You know the trees tend to have a big crop every other year – actually some only crop biennially – which is quite a challenge, especially for bigger producers. I’m lucky to have access to a couple of trees at Douai Abbey and this year I made a cider called Royal County and that was made with fruit from those trees blended with some Kingston Black and an unnamed dessert fruit both harvested from Great Shefford.”
Royal County, I ask: wasn’t that the name of an excellent cider by Pang Valley?
“Yes it is! I am good friends with Rick Wyatt from Pang Valley and he effectively passed the trees and orchards on to me. I specifically went down to that abbey so I could get more apples to try and replicate last year’s Royal County, in fact, I think you tried it at the Biscuit Factory?
Yes I did, I tell him! I loved it.
“Well, there were hardly any apples this year. I think I managed to get half a bag! Maybe next year I might have a little something for the blend of another cider but it’s going to be a challenge.”
Just a note about Royal County. It was one of the most enjoyable ciders I have ever tasted. I still think about it and I still have a couple of original bottles in my cellar.
“Rick very kindly let me take the name on and he had the blessing from Roy Bailey of Lambourne Valley Cider to do so. Roy very kindly let’ me have access to his Dabinett fruit for my Royal County too so I feel really blessed to be able to make that cider. And for the Royal County I only use Berkshire apples to make it, that’s crucial.”
I say it sounds like Rick has been really supportive.
“Yes we have a good relationship. Rick has lent me kit, given me kit, given me tips, shared apples and we’ve collaborated together on past ciders. I love that Rick gets as excited about cider and apples as I do. You know, we recently had the conversation around whether we should send some of the unnamed Douai Abbey fruit samples off to the national food collection to get them DNA tested. It would be quite nice to know what they are because right now it’s simply a mystery.”
The pair also produced a cider together which won a gold medal at the Bath and West show. Quite the team I say.
Tim Wale at Tutts Clump had previously told me that one of the challenges – as some cider producers leave the business – is that the orchards that they gathered apples from and maintained, get left to ruin. Over time the crop will deteriorate. Andy agrees. “Yes absolutely. Apples don’t have to be beautiful to press but I will only press the better quality ones – clean fruit, without any rot. I guess some would say it doesn’t matter what it looks like, but for me it feels really important.”
I asked whether Andy feels the pressure to keep doing this cider making now.
“No, I think if I felt that it became a chore then that would be different but right now I really enjoy it. At the moment it’s at a manageable scale. I make a couple of thousand litres. I’m not at Tutts Clump’s scale, tens of thousands of litres, or even Dave at Green Shed Cider who makes around seven thousand. I sit below the exemption threshold and that works for me. The moment you go above that, it becomes a very different reality. This is a domestic scale and I don’t have that pressure of having to make a living from this, which makes me feel very fortunate.”
Andy shows the barrels of cider that are maturing in the garden.
“You can see the set up here, and I’ll show you the garage in a minute. I’m just starting to turn over a little bit of money and that allows me to reinvest back into the cider and into my kit. For me the money is not the driver, the process and the quality of the product is what I enjoy about this. I really love putting something out here that people enjoy drinking.”
It’s not easy work is it, I say, fully aware that everything about this process screams hard graft.
“No, it’s not easy work. There’s lots of lifting, carrying and pressing – it’s very manual for us, it’s really hard graft but I do enjoy it. I am not a brewer and I’m aware that if I was, I could make a beer in 28 days but a cider is very different. As a cider maker, we have to be ready when the crop is ready. We have to be ready for the season because nobody working in cider wants to import apples out of season. You have to be there and ready to go which is end of September, October and early November. I work full-time, commuting to London and I work a weekend in every four, and I do know my limits. It can be a big juggle sometimes but I’ve learnt how to manage it.”
I say that I’ve met many talented producers and brewers over the years but one thread that often links them is the personal struggle of promoting their product. I can’t help but think of Rick at Pang Valley when I ask this question. How do you find this?
“I can find the promotional side of things quite challenging actually and I don’t think Rick realised just how good his cider was. You know, he once entered the Sandford Orchards Breakthrough Cider Awards for cider makers producing between 2,500l-7,000l and the very first time he enters, he ends up a runner up. Amazing.”
So you’ve had to push yourself to put your cider out there then I ask?
“Yes, definitely. A good example is The Reading Museum. They have my cider and that was quite funny because I went in there to tell them, about it and I was being all shy and quiet and my wife just took the cider off me and said to them ‘Look – this is my husband’s cider, it’s made in Reading, it’s really good and Henry I (said to be buried at Reading Abbey) is on the label. I think would look lovely in your museum shop.’ They stock it now!”
We head into the garage where Andy has a few different ciders for me to try. The first bottle is a single variety Kingston Black. What kind of ciders do you like? I ask.
“I like dry ciders to be honest. Most ciders are made up from blends because, essentially, the cider maker is trying to aim for the balance of bitterness from the tannins and acidity which differs across the different varieties. Ideally, you need to end up with a balance and not let one thing dominate.”
We then try the Reading Press.
“This has had a bit of sugar added to it. It’s just on the medium dry side with this particular cider. I’m going to bottle it up and have it carbonated. It’s not as bitter but not overly sweet and it should be lovely for summer, I think.”
Andy reaches for the third bottle. “This cider is actually a Perry using perry pear fruit gathered in Berkshire and is a bit of an experiment because I’ve never made a Perry before!” I say that to me – admittedly with my beer hat on – it tastes a little like a lambic beer with a dry finish and a little tartness. “It would cut through with some cheese though, wouldn’t it?” Andy says.
You’re building a name for yourself locally, I say.
“Well, every label for our cider has Henry I on it and that was a very deliberate choice because we wanted to link Seven Trees directly to Reading. It’s widely rumoured that Henry I is buried at Reading Abbey and therefore I wanted that link to Reading’s cultural history. I love supporting local businesses and getting involved in local festivals.”
What festivals are you going to feature at this year, I ask?
“I’ve supplied Bracknell, Newbury and I was at Twyford last year and met Ian Wisdom. In fact, I got some great feedback from them and he’s very keen to take more cider from me this year. I am hopeful this year that I can maintain who I have supplied previously. One of the first places we ever supplied was the Nags Head. We love the Nags and Jody’s cellar, it’s just incredible isn’t it?”
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What does it feel like to have your cider out there in the wild I ask?
“When I was back into this cider making in 2018 and 2019 I entered a few competitions. I was keen to be able to benchmark myself again and know honestly how I was ranking and whether what I was making was good enough. My first goal was to have a cider on in the Nags Head because they have always had 12 ciders on tap and we love them so much. That was my first big goal, and to achieve it felt massive.”
It sounds that Reading has been welcoming and supportive of this venture, I say.
“ Yes and it was a major milestone to get our cider on locally. The folks in the Castle Tap are such nice people. They always have great ciders on and so to get my cider on in there was a big deal to me. The Alehouse has stocked our cider – I think Carl Mellors is a genuinely nice guy. We’ve also had cider on in the Fox and Hounds in Caversham and Kevin has been good because he understands that cider is seasonal and once it’s gone, it’s gone. It was a shame about the Grumpy Goat as they were my first bottle shop and so good. I have a good relationship with the Biscuit Factory and there’s nothing else in Reading quite like that.
“The chap at A Hoppy Place, Dave, he stocks it as well and Loddon up in Dunsden Green. I mean what a lovely set up they have up there! Isn’t it wonderful?”
So what next I ask? It sounds like you’re happy with your scale.
“I don’t feel I need to go much further than the footprint I have, to be honest. I feel that this is about right for me and it feels really nice. I’m free to experiment and make a cider that I’m proud of and that I see stocked in places I respect and that’s the dream for me. I will do this as long as it continues to feel fun and as long as I continue to enjoy it.”
Zoë Andrews
Published in Mine’s A Pint, issue 63.
Mine's A Pint - Reading & Mid-Berks CAMRA 