It’s Melplash Show day and all of Bridport is here. Crowds jostle for a look at the pigs, cattle and sheep. The actor Martin Clunes, who lives locally, leads one of his heavy horses into the ring, a big strawberry roan gelding with a mane plaited with ribbons. Everyone ignores the celebrity: they are far more interested in the finer points of his horse.
In the handicrafts and local produce tent, lines of glass cider bottles glow palest amber and urinous gold. The two judges, the cider-maker Ross Mangles of North Down Orchard, and the cider writer James Crowden, began tasting at 8.30am. Fortified with a block of blue-veined cheddar cheese, a packet of cream crackers and a glass of water, they have sampled all 36 entries by 10am. When I join them for the results, the winning bottles are at least a quarter empty, and Ross and James are feeling upbeat.
The competition is for traditional non-fizzy cider and divided into three classes – dry, medium and sweet – with a trophy for the best in show. Ross explains that they look for clearness, balance and roundness of flavour, and offers me a taste of the overall champion. It is a sweet cider and beguilingly smooth, but I prefer the winner of the medium category, which has more tannin. Made just outside Bridport by a non-commercial producer, it is a classic, traditional farmhouse style, fermented from a mix of old apple varieties whose names are a roll call of autumn: Dabinett, Breakwell’s seedling, sweet Alford and crimson king.
Next year’s entries may not be so numerous because the summer drought and prolonged high temperatures mean the apple crop is around 80% down.
“We were expecting a bad year as last year was very good – apple yields alternate between good and poor years – but this has been much worse than we thought,” says Ross. He still has juice supplies left from last year’s pressings, but other producers are struggling.
Small-scale cider-making has undergone a revival in Dorset, in recent times with villagers forming clubs dedicated to the art of the apple. New orchards have been planted and ancient varieties rediscovered. Drinkers are hoping for a bumper crop next year to fill the depleted barrels.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com
