Ramborn Cider Co. has received the top double gold award for its Perry at the 2019 Cidercraft Awards. The awards were determined by a jury of industry specialists, growers, producers and other experts through a blind tasting of perries and ciders from around the world. The results will be featured in the January 2020 issue of Cidercraft Magazine, the world’s premiere cider magazine with a distribution of over 100,000 copies per issue.

The double gold is just one of several awards for Ramborn Perry, which also picked up a gold medal at the 2019 International Cider Awards in London, in which over 200 breweries and cider makers from around the world took part, and a gold at the 2017 SISGA competition in Spain.

The awards are an international recognition of Ramborn’s commitment to high-quality products and its philosophy of reviving the culture of cidermaking and local meadow orchards. The secret of the Perry’s success stems from Luxembourg’s orchards with old pear varieties, some of which are over 300 years old, especially thanks to the Luxembourg "Neelchesbier", or “Perry pear”, which is unique amongst the more than 100 varieties grown in the grand duchy.

It is a pear which differs from others mainly by its size (it is small), its weight (it is heavy) and its intense acid content. Since the pear tends to ripen from the inside-out, it takes special care to harvest it at its peak, and each one has to be manually checked and handled. Its juice is sweet, with a pleasant tannin aftertaste, and packed with the fruit’s true essence. Ramborn works with 137 different local suppliers, farmers, private individuals and communes to craft its high-quality Perry.  It is precisely because of these farmers that such a high-quality product is created.

Perry producers are seldom, as production is expensive and requires a lot of labour, in part due to the fact that pear trees produce their first fruits only after 25 years and reach maturity only after 75 years. But with the right processing and know-how, an extraordinary drink can be produced. According to Napoleon Bonaparte, Perry is the English version of champagne: with pleasant aromas, slightly sparkling, enjoyable tannins, aromatic fruit flavours and at the end a hint of nutmeg.

Most commercial perries are apple cider with some concentrated pear juice and aromas. For traditional Perry, only fermented pear juice is used.  It is a rare product because the number of pear trees is constantly decreasing.