Always something to try at Gurneys Cider

By Andrew Paloczi

FOSTER’S Gurneys Cider is expanding at a rapid rate but remains a family owned and run business offering a friendly vibe, proper cider, and other delightful beverages such as its recently released apple brandy.

People are flocking there to enjoy its products and to take a tour of ‘The Arches’, the production and storage facility that is currently the world’s largest underground cider cellar.

While the concrete structure used to create the cellar was originally intended for use at Hazelwood Power Station, it became available due to the Victorian Government’s decision to close that facility.

It required 18 semi-trailer loads and a couple of cranes to transport the concrete arch panels and put the structure in place at its new home.

A Regional Victorian Tourism grant of $430,000 helped to turn the new cellar into the functional facility and tourist drawcard it is now.

“That grant gave them the ability to make it what it is today,” tour manager Craig Privett said of what the Gurneys Cider founders and owners, the Gurnetts have done.

It has proved an inspired piece of innovation, with the use of stones on top of the structure, and wooden doors providing surprising character from the outside, with the structure fitting into its setting despite its original purpose.

“The doors were handmade by Amber Creek Sawmill up in Fish Creek,” Craig said.

The cellar maintains a relatively constant internal temperature, usually in the vicinity of 10 to 12 degrees centigrade, ranging up to 15 degrees.

Being underground, its natural insulation has allowed Gurneys Cider to store products without the need to install costly three-phase power, something that would have been necessary to cool a suitable storage shed.

The first batch of Gurneys Cider hit the market in 2018, with just 3000 litres made in the Gurnett family’s original shed, using Breville juicers.

A couple of shed upgrades later, and with a major boost in equipment, almost 70,000 litres of cider were made in 2022.

Having migrated from Somerset England and yearning for a cider to compare favourably with the traditional dry ciders produced there, the Gurnetts found the search fruitless, eventually deciding to make their own.

Father Bill took on the project with sons James and Tom.

While the expansion of the business has exceeded all expectations, the aim is to continue to innovate rather than focusing on mass production.

“You’ve got to experiment, and you can’t be afraid of failure,” James said.

The aim is to always have different ciders available to try when people visit the cellar door, something that maintains interest for the Gurneys Cider team as well as the public.

Those taking ‘The Arches’ tour will sample some of that creativity, including the apple brandy inspired by French Calvados, and Ice Cider, an idea that stemmed from French ice wine.

“The French let the grape freeze on the vine,” Craig said.

At Gurneys, a large quantity of apple juice is frozen, being defrosted slowly when the weather is at a suitable temperature.

“Once it’s frozen, we put it out on the coolest days of winter, and it’s leveraging the different melting points of the water and sugar in the juice,” James said, explaining the aim is to extract apple essence.

That apple essence is then fermented to produce the Ice Cider.

Gurneys apple brandy has been aged on French oak for seven years, having been distilled by a third party as there are no distillation facilities at the cidery.

The Gurnetts bought the land on which their business is situated in 2015.

James described the expansion of the business since its first public release of cider as “unfathomable”.

Gurneys Cider was named ‘Business of the Year’ and the ‘Food and Wine Producers’ winner in 2022, proving the Gurnetts’ innovative outlook is working.

Visit gurneyscider.com.au to book a tour.