22/08/2026
It's my birthday, and I'm delighted to celebrate it by reading Laura Hadland's wonderful historical review of the Barland pear on ***r_review! This variety has been used for making the highest quality perry since at least 1656, and plausibly even earlier. And in under two weeks time, at the C***r Festival we will release our 2025 vintage single variety Barland perry.
It's a floral, full bodied and immensely drinkable dry semi-sparkling perry. Barland somehow manages to be so many things at once. There's super soft tannins, only teasing at bitterness. There's juicy, limey acidity that never becomes too sour. And the body of the drink knitting it all together is more-ish whilst never being too sweet. Wonderful.
These trees are remarkable to me. How have we only made two single varieties in my time working here with Dad? Did he ever even make SVs of Barland before? Our 2017-2018 blend, the Blakeney, Barland and Bartestree, did win First Prize at Putley in 2019 so it isn't like we wasted them! Yet the 2022 Barland was so inconspicuous as to be bottled in a 500ml and hidden amongst that range. It quickly became clearly the very best of them, so when we saw a large crop in the trees in what was a stellar growing season last year, the excitement began.
Two years ago I posted a video showing me, Dad and Martin cutting a fireblight infested interloper out of these Barland trees. The root system had managed to throw out a second trunk that in all my beloved father's time taking care of the trees, there had never been the urgency to remove. I'm glad for that now as it shows with the utmost proof that Barland is resistant to fireblight.
Tall, powerful, vigorous trees, resistant to fireblight, that crop well, and the pear is easy and reliable to work with. The Perry is of supreme quality and the provenance is near on four hundred years. Who's up for planting more?
