Our apple and cider journey

Room 2: 9:30am

Anna Lamotte and Digby Legge, Diggers Fine Cider Ltd

We are a relatively new (launched in 2020) family-run business making Scottish cider in the traditional way, more akin to a natural wine than modern ciders.

We are based in Perthshire, at Guardswell Farm and have planted 2,800 apple trees, with over 100 varieties of apple – a mix of eating, cooking and cider apples along with pears, quince plums and crab apples for good measure. While we wait for our trees to grow to maturity, we use unwanted apples from local orchards and gardens.

It all starts in the orchard for us and we only use 100% Scottish Apples, foraged in the famous Carse of Gowrie – be that from single trees in local gardens, unsprayed orchards, or even ancient apple and perry trees. What the apples give us and letting time do its thing is the core of how we make our cider. This is why we use 100% apple juice, minimal interventions and wild yeasts.

We ferment and age our ciders and perrys in a mix of Stainless steel tanks and wooden barrels (old & new), and utilise a variety of different techniques to create exciting Scottish Ciders, including Pétillant-Naturel (Pet Nat), Method Traditional, Battonage and Bottle Conditioning.