"The Best Cider in The World"

In 1989, whilst working full-time in Adelaide, my wife Susan and I signed a piece of paper and took possession of 106 acres of rolling hills near the historic copper mining town of Burra in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. The vision was to plant a forest of native trees, an orchard containing every type of fruit tree known to man, keep a flock of free range chickens and build a colonial style mud brick house in the middle of it all.

The thing with dreams is that they don't always work out the way they were planned. The native trees did well, the chooks arrived, started laying eggs and in due course we built the house but most of the fruit trees turned up their heels and died!

When we built the house we were on site every weekend and every holiday. We started building in February and moved in on Christmas Eve of the same year and what we discovered was that Burra, far from being a hot dry place, is a cold frosty place. The frost was the killer. Amongst the fruit trees we had planted were Cox's Orange Pippin, Bramley Seedling and Egremont Russet all apple trees and they thrive on Burra's cold winters and warm to hot summers. So we planted Cleopatra, Rome Beauty, Laxton Superb, Fox Whelp and 70 more varieties of old apples. The Fox Whelp is a true cider apple and it was in the cider apples that our dreams came to fruition.

As the apple trees started to bear fruit we began making cider. Many vintages followed, some good, some not so good but it became apparent early on that the more traditional methods we used and the more traditional equipment we were able to obtain the better the cider.

1999 saw Susan and myself getting up at the crack of dawn and going to bed at sun down working all hours because on the 13 July Rob Kerin the Deputy Premier of South Australia and the Minister for Primary Industries was due to arrive, drink some cider and declare Thorogoods Farmhouse Cider open for business. Our "Gold Dust" (named after a local wattle) became a classic and in 2001 we released a new full bodied dry cider "Old Sleepy" which helped our reputation reach a new high.

As the Deputy Premier's car disappeared into the distance we thought "we have worked hard and now we can rest" not at all, we had to redouble our efforts. More trees had to be planted, the mud brick cider cellar finished and we had to make cider, lots of cider. We make the cider slowly and painstakingly on an old Italian basket press and each vintage is matured for one year in small French Oak barrels. Not always but at least sometimes, hard work and learning from mistakes pays off. The soil type, the climate, the slope of the hills in Burra even the frost is perfect for making quality cider and as the French would say we have the right terroir.

On Christmas Eve 2000 the Federal Minister For Agriculture, The Honourable Warren Truss MP, awarded us a $40,000 grant for innovation to help turn our "Misty Morning" into a true Champagne. We commissioned new production facilities and imported specialised Champagne making equipment. We held a Grand Opening of the facilities in July 2001 combined with a launch of the new "champagne" which was presided over by Warren Truss, who flew in for the occasion.

Thorogoods Fine Apple Wines now has outlets in the Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. It has been exported to Texas, Vancouver, the UK and even the Australian Antarctic Station. To top all this off, on Friday the 30 November 2001, we won an SA Great Business Award, nominees included many prestigious South Australian businesses including the Clare Valley Wine Makers. Recognition had come to us at last - now the secret needs to be let out that, in the words of a New Zealand customer, "the best cider in the world" is made right here in South Australia.

Tony Thorogood
Cider Maker