"Zīles", Jumpravas pagasts, Lielvārdes novads, LV-5022, Latvija | Mob.: 28465427, 29631631 |
About us
"We are Plums, but we love apples!"
Internationally awarded, family owned, quality not quantity oriented, orchard based, full 100% juice, hand crafted, environment friendly - the real thing.
Everything from grafting and planting apple trees, taking care of the orchard, harvesting the fruit, pressing the juice, till the ready cider is done by Plūme family: wife Dace and husband Māris. They've gained knowledge while working at well known family cider production farms in Austria (Mostviertel) and France (Normandy) as well as doing lots of experiments using different fermentation technics to get different styles of cider since year 2010. Also fermented beverages like fruit wines and distilled strong spirits are being made.
Located in Lielvārdes novads - literary the centre and the heart of Latvia. Orchard consist mostly of rare and special purpose apple variety trees, not so many perry pear trees and berry bushes and some other fruit. It is surrounded by wild forests which give perfect protection against strong winds. It has very fertile clay soil which is perfect for growing healthy apple trees. The northern weather of Baltics is also quite unique because in summers it has much longer hours of daylight and the temperature change from quite warm in the day and chilly in the night give great contribution to development of strong aromas in fruit.
There is ever growing collection of apple varieties in the orchard: Some rare aromatic dessert apples, several local and world wide known crab apples, new hybrids from national apple breeding programs, tannic chance seedlings found in Latvia and also true English bittersweet cider apples. Most are grown on rootstocks like MM 106 and B 118. Also few Austrian perry varieties (Mostbirnen) are grafted and grown on local seedling rootstocks.
To make the most character full cider, the best fruit are needed. Since 2015 crops are being harvested also from own orchard and things are getting more exciting ever since. But still (2019) big part of fruit is gained by "apple safari" - driving around and searching for the best possible seedlings or wild apples - malus sylvestris.
Drinks
CIDER
We have dry, semidry and sweet (from the top left) non sparkling apple cider. White wine like character - acidic, fruity, refreshing, tiny effervescence. Enjoy chilled from wine glasses.
Mulled cider (bottom left) ready to be poured and heated. Refreshing, moderately sweet, with just the right touch of cloves and cinnamon. Many prefer to drink it chilled.
Keeved - naturally, in bottle carbonated cider. Character very similar to french Normandy style ciders. Strong colour, strong aroma and flavour. Medium body, medium sweet.
