Ourcider
Atthe Ola cider house
we make 80,000 litres of cider a year with apples from our orchards. Our apple trees are selectively planted to obtain bitter and bitter-sweet fruit, and all are local varieties. We start making cider in mid-September, harvesting the different apple varieties (mozoloa, patzuloa, goikoetxe, urtebi haundi, errezila, etc.) and complete the process in early November.
The harvested apples are washed and selected. We then fill the press, or tolare, with the apples, where they are pressed for 4-5 hours to extract the must. This must is poured into the tanks, where we analyse its PH and sugar level. The must spends 24 hours in the decanting barrels before transfer from these to their final barrels.
Three months later, we obtain the natural cider ready for drinking. Our cider bottles carry the EUSKO LABEL quality stamp, demonstrating that our cider is not only produced in the Basque Country, but that it is also made with locally-sourced apples.
Our cider has won several prizes at cider competitions:
- 2006 Third prize in the Gipuzkoa Cider Championship.
- 2007 Finalist in the Gipuzkoa Cider Championship.
- 2012 First prize for the Best Cider in Gipuzkoa.
- 2015 Finalist in the first Basque Country Cider Championship.
Ola Sagardotegia
The Ola cider maker was opened in 1999. It is located in an old 13th century forge, known as Arantzateko Burniola, which has been recovered to transform it into the current cider maker. It is worth seeing its spectacular original walls, which have been conserved to the present day.