DNA Hunt To Find Old Cider Apple Varieties

How can some of today’s most advanced scientific techniques help revive some of the most delicious, but now sadly forgotten, alcoholic drinks ever produced in Britain? That is a question West Country cider-maker Barny Butterfield has been asking - and now a Bristol University professor has now set about trying to find an answer… 

Barny Butterfield of Sandford Orchards

Professor Keith Edwards, of Bristol University, has this summer been busy taking DNA samples from hundreds of trees in some of the orchards used by Mr Butterfield’s Sandford Orchards cider company. 

It’s part of a project being run by the university and the professor to identify and map the nation’s traditional cider apple varieties, many of which were never catalogued - but apart from helping to identify the nation’s horticultural heritage there is a reason people like Barny Butterfield are so excited.

That is because it is known that certain high-quality ciders exported regularly from Devon and Somerset to London around 300 years ago were deemed so delicious, wealthy aristocrats in the capital preferred drinking them to so-called fine wines imported from France. Indeed, some West Country ciders were secretly blended by underhand importers with inferior wines to make them more palatable.

But what exactly were these delicious high quality ciders, and from which local Somerset and Devon apples were they made? There are a few clues - as recently shown in Westcountry author James Crowden’s new book, Cider Country - but with no recipes and very few written accounts, no one can really tell. And even though some names are known, such as the famous Royal Wilding - where are the Royal Wilding trees today?

“Now, by using genetic-fingerprinting techniques we are able to wind back the clock,” says Barny, “We can map a particular variety and see where it crops up in places like Devon and Somerset. And that allows us to start building the picture so that hopefully we can reclaim some old varieties which make great cider.

“Maybe there could be incredible new ciders made today, just like there were 300 years ago - like Devon’s Royal Wilding, which made such a name for itself but which disappeared. 

“Using the new techniques we will find apples that could be important in changing the type of ciders we make,” Barny continued. “Each apple variety will behave in a certain way according to the local conditions - and, by having a much better knowledge of the rich diversity of trees in our orchards, we might find wonderful cider apples which are ready to take on the challenge of a changing environment.”

As part of the Bristol University project, Prof Edwards has been visiting various orchards which supply Sandford Orchard Cider with its apples. By punching a small hole in leaves from individual trees, the professor is able to collect samples for DNA testing, while geographically tagging the particular tree using the What3Words geo-positioning system. This means each and every tree in an orchard can be identified and mapped. 

“The DNA of each tree is unique to its variety,” says Barny. “So it might be that we find a tree that is the only one of its kind in the whole country. Or perhaps there’s just one in my orchard, and perhaps you’ve got two, and another guy has four… The great thing is - because we are mapping the trees - I am going to be able to collect enough fruit from those seven trees to make a small amount of single-apple cider. And if that proves to be a sensational cider… then we are really on to something!”

Professor Keith Edwards

Professor Edwards agrees there’s a possibility his genetic mapping programmes could help in a renaissance of delicious highly local ciders… 

“I think Barny is onto something. If we can identify two or three trees in one orchard and a few over there in another location which are the same little-known variety, then cider-makers can generate a sufficient quantity from that variety in order to taste it and see how commercial it is,” he told the WDP.

“If the variety was a real success, you graft it onto root stock and very soon you could increase from, say, seven to 70 trees - all producing that one variety of fruit and allowing for a small commercial crop.”

The professor already has experience in small-scale production because his researches were born from original work carried out in the 1980s at the now closed Long Ashton Research Centre near Bristol. Researchers there had bred and established some 20 varieties of top quality cider apples known as The Girls (each named after a female member of staff). Trees from The Girls project were saved after Long Ashton closed and recently the professor made small batches of cider from each so that researchers and tasters could analyse the merits of the different varieties. 

Now, his new DNA research Professor Edwards has been surprised because of the varieties being grown in older orchards in the West Country, a region which has long been famed for its cider…

“We thought that, being well-established orchards, we might only find a few different cider apple varieties in each, but that has not been the case. We have fingerprinted around 400 samples and I believe there will be a great many different varieties. We will know in the next few weeks, and I believe a decent number will be unique.”

James Crowden and his new book Cider Country

Somerset-based author James Crowden, whose new book Cider Country tells the long and fascinating history of the region’s favourite tipple, commented: “This is a very good idea. Okay, the actual names of the apples which went into those high quality ciders 300 years ago won’t be the same, or simply won’t exist any longer - but if Professor Edwards can help cider-makers like Sandford Orchards make interesting single-apple products, that can only be a very good thing - for cider-lovers, the local economy and the environment.”

James with journalist Martin Hesp