IT’S been an exciting few years for Sheppy’s Cider. New state-of-the-art vats have been purchased, the orchards are expanding and plans are being put in place to help Somerset’s traditional cider makers reach even more cider lovers.

As they prepare to celebrate their 200th anniversary, County Gazette reporter DANIELLE MORRIS finds out what’s next.

THE smell of pressed apple juice slowly fermenting into cider hits your nose as soon as you open the car door at Sheppy’s Farm.

It’s a deliriously sweet intoxicating smell and for a Somerset girl born and bred, homely.

It’s easy to see why the brand has such a loyal fan base and why so many visitors flock to the farm each year to find out more about one of the West Country’s finest exports.

With drinkers up and down the country and even in China, America, Japan and Germany, Sheppy’s is doing what it can to keep up with demand.

“We get visitors from all over the country, especially in the summer,”

Louisa Sheppy tells me.

“A lot of people who come to visit have been engaged with the farm for generations.

“It’s wonderful, so many of them come and tell us that they remember coming here with their father and now they’re coming back with their child.”

And for many, their first real taste of the West Country was Sheppy’s.

Louisa’s father-in-law Richard Sheppy used to sell thousands of gallons of the golden juice from a shed by the roadside as son David, who now runs the farm with Louisa, sat playing.

Although still home to the rustic charms of a Somerset farm, it’s now certainly no modest affair.

Louisa and David have been running Sheppy’s for around 18 years, having taken over the day to day running not long after they got married and together they have grown the business into what it is now.

But their key aim remains making quality cider.

“The farm is 40 per cent self-sufficient,”

Louisa says as we stroll around the farm.

“We have 70 acres of orchards and we’re going to plant another 20 in the spring.

“The rest of the apples come from local farms and also from Hereford.”

It’s almost the end of the harvest season and the farm is awash with the rosy colours of apples and autumn.

The harvest season is a long one for the workers, who are up at the crack of dawn picking apples up from the floor of the orchards.

They’re then taken to one of two, 30-tonne bays, where water takes over.

Louisa explains: “On some of the days we were working from 6am until 1am the next day.

“But after the apples have been collected, water does most of the work as it conveys the apples onto the press.

“It’s like apple bobbing on a grand scale.”

The apples are then squashed into pulp, which goes through rollers and as the juice falls it is piped underground to the vat house next door, ready to be fermented into cider – a process which usually takes around a few weeks.

Sheppy’s has recently invested in new large steel vats which can hold an additional 742,000 litres of cider.

But the farm has also kept thewooden vats which are impressive in their own right.

They’ve been on the farm since the 1950s but Louisa isn’t sure where they came from and they won’t be leaving anytime soon, as they’re David’s “favourite girls”.

“We have had a good harvest this year, the apples have been juicy but quite low on sugar, which you need for the fermenting process,” Louisa adds.

“We didn’t have very much sun this year which is why the sugar is low.

“The worst year was probably 2012, it just rained and rained.”

Sheppy’s doesn’t just make 15 varieties of apple cider at the Three Bridges Farm, but it also runs a production line, which was opened in 2013.

In a day, between 13,000 and 20,000 bottles can be filled and the factory also bottles ciders for other customers such as Marks and Spencer and produces kegs to go to pubs.

And they rear their own longhorn beef too.

Louisa recalls: “Our first calf Delilah was born in 2002 and now we have 25 breeding cows and two bulls.

“It’s lovely as you grow with the herd, the farm its self is very demanding and challenging, David and I are workaholics.”

Earlier this year, the farm had a special visitor open the tearooms, which the farm has taken back ownership of – George Osborne.

For Louisa, the expansion of the farm is just the beginning.

Plans are in place to extend the shop and the café so a dining room can be put in and a bar, making Sheppy’s the perfect party venue.