Saturday 22nd April saw the judging take place for the first ever Champion Cider of Ireland. A team of five expert judges from across the UK and Ireland deliberated on almost 40 ciders from 20 producers entered into five categories to assess which ciders deserved recognition. Ten ciders made it through to the final round but only one could be crowned Champion Cider of Ireland: for 2017 that cider is Tempted Dry Cider!
Davy Uprichard, a first generation cider-maker with 8 years experience based in Lisburn is rightly pleased with his cider’s success: “I knew my cider was good - it’s won plenty of awards before but to receive this award on my home turf and beating a lot of other cider-makers who I respect makes it more meaningful.”
As well as winning the competition Davy took home three other awards with the dry cider coming best in category, Tempted Elderflower awarded best fruited cider and Tempted Sweet took second place in the non-dry category.
Runner up and best non-dry cider was awarded to the Cider Mill’s Cockagee keeved cider. Mark Jenkinson said of his awards “What a great weekend, chuffed with 3 wins in inaugural Irish Cider Championship. A big, big thank you to Beoir and all the organisers and judges for holding such a professional and proper cider competition.” Mark’s Cockagee Perry was also awarded best perry.
Third place overall went to newcomers Johnny Falldown. Founder Barry Walsh said “We're very happy with result ourselves, as there was clearly a lot of quality on board”
The competition was organised by Steve Lamond, Cider Liaison Officer for Beoir, the Irish Beer Consumers Association. “I wanted to showcase the breadth and depth of ciders available on the island of Ireland and give the recognition to those producers that is well overdue. I’m really with happy with how the day turned out, a big thank you to all of the entrants and judges who helped to make it a success - we’ll certainly run it again!”
Susanna Forbes, one of two lead judges alongside Pete Brown said of the day “It was a pleasure and a privilege to judge the first Champion Cider of Ireland competition. Quality overall was commendable, with a few exceptions. Beoir are to be congratulated on this positive initiative to welcome entries north and south of the border. As it becomes further established, I’d welcome seeing further cider makers in the competition in future years.”
Beoir Champion Irish Cider 2017
Full results:
Champion Cider of Ireland
1st Tempted Dry Cider
2nd The Cider Mill Cockagee Cider
3rd Johnny Falldown Cider
Honourable mentions:
Tempted Elderflower
Llewellyn's Dry Cider Frizzante 2014
Dry ciders
1. Tempted Dry
2. Llewellyn's Frizzante 2014
3. MacIvors Dry
Non-Dry Ciders
1. The Cider Mill Cockagee
2. Tempted Sweet
Highly Commended
Johnny Falldown
MacIvors Medium
Perries
1. The Cider Mill Cockagee Perry
2. Llewellyn's Frizzante Perry 2014
Fruited Ciders
1. Tempted Elderflower
2. MacIvors Plum and Ginger
Speciality Ciders
No overall winner chosen but all 4 entries highly commended for efforts.
Longueville Mor
Dan Kelly's Whisky Cask
The Cider Mill Ice Cider
Johnny Falldown Pommeau
The event was kindly hosted by the Wine Rack, Stewartstown, which hopes to stock all of the winning ciders.
Entrants can log on to the registration system here if they wish.