Claire Daniels and Mike Shorland, of Rull Orchard, have been celebrating an award-winning year for their sustainable ciders and perries.
Rull Orchard’s Autumn Unwrapped Perry
The couple began planting an orchard in 2018, fermenting fruit from their own trees and local orchards. As the volume of their production has increased, they’ve demonstrated a passion for not only nature and the biodiversity of orchard habitats, but also a love for local, quality, craft fermentations.
The breadth of their products demonstrates an understanding for the fruit they work with, representing provenance and complexity of varietals through different fermentation techniques and styles of drinks.
This year has seen their Foxwhelp cider (cold racked, single variety, 7.8% ABV) take the Arthur Davies Cup at the British Cider Championships at the Royal Bath and West show. Their Devon fermentation of a classic Gloucestershire apple was deemed “spectacularly balanced” by judges David Lindgren and Albert Johnson.
Just weeks apart, at the Devon County Show, they took home five awards for as many entries.
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Summer saw them awarded with the Breakthrough Cider maker award with Sandford Orchards. They were the first to take this prize with a perry — their Autumn Unwrapped Perry, a bottle-conditioned blend of wild-fermented Devon pears, coming in at 5.4% ABV.
“In the end, the result was unanimous,” decalred judges Tom Oliver, Mary Topp, and Gabe Cook. “The perry was one of the finest anyone at the table had tasted in a long time, and the passion of Claire and Mike shined through their application.”
Claire said: “We’re over the moon to receive this award! It’s wonderful to have our natural, full-juice perry recognised by a panel of such acclaimed judges, and very exciting to be part of a growing appreciation for sustainably produced drinks, alongside our passion for nature and biodiversity.
“We’re very much looking forward to collaborating with Barny [Butterfield, owner of Sandford Orchards] and our future journey in creating and promoting cider and perry.”
Barny Butterfield (right), managing director of Sandford Orchards, with Claire Daniels and Mike Shorland of Rull Orchard
The year, and their harvest, came to a close with gold awards for their cider entries through Food Drink Devon, where they were recognised in addition, once again, for their ongoing focus on sustainability.
Mike said: “We’re excited for the year ahead. Over the next few months we’ll discover how the harvest of 2025 has represented in our fermentations; we have some new single-variety perry fermentations that are looking really special so far.
“The cidery has now grown to a size we’re really happy with, so we’ll be focusing on spreading the word about great, sustainable cider and perry. Hopefully, we’ll gain some critical success through the year that will help raise our profile and recognition of our work.”
Their enthusiasm for engaging their community has seen them work with Ivybridge Brewing on a collaborative cider, released in 2024 to raise funds for the brewery and the great work they do in supporting their staff.
