The Newt in Somerset

At The Newt, they celebrate every aspect of their county’s signature crop; from the sapling to the tree, the fruit, its juice and the final stage: cyder. Around the time Hadspen House was built, the finest quality cyders were preferred to champagne by sniffy Somerset gentry who knew their tipple. People in our apple-growing regions consumed over a pint a day; at the time, this mildly alcoholic drink was safer than water. Everyone, including children, drank it – even at breakfast! Records show that the secondary fermentation process being used at this time - in glass bottles, sealed with corks - came well before French monk Dom Pierre Pérignon supposedly invented Champagne.