Restoring a lost landscape
Twenty years ago we discovered three veteran perry pear trees hidden in brambles - remnants of a long forgotten working orchard. Inspired, we planted trees around them to re-create a long forgotten landscape in the Welsh Marches.
Our “standard perries” are much taller and more widely spaced than those found in modern orchards - sheep graze underneath them and wildlife is allowed to flourish. Establishing a traditional orchard takes patience - the trees grow slowly and take years before they crop reliably. But they repay that patience as the deep roots produce perry of outstanding quality.
Our veteran trees have been fruiting since before anyone now living was born. When you open a bottle of Cabalva perry, you're enjoying the produce of an orchard that has been tended — then neglected and restored — across the generations.
A drink worth waiting for
Old trees, old land
The countryside around the Welsh Marches was once threaded with perry orchards. Almost every farmhouse of any consequence had one – not for commerce, but for the household. Perry was the drink of the farm: made on site, drunk on site, shared with neighbours and offered to workers at harvest time. The orchards were as much a part of the landscape as the hedgerows and the hay meadows.
Those old trees that survived – massive, ancient things, often centuries old – became isolated relics, still fruiting faithfully but with nobody to pick them.
At Cabalva, these relics are now valued for the outstanding perry they make.
Organic & regenerative
The farm at Cabalva is run on organic and regenerative principles. No synthetic fertilisers or pesticides are used in the orchards. The sheep that graze beneath the trees are part of the system rather than an afterthought - their grazing keeps the sward short and diverse, their manure returns nutrients to the soil, and their presence connects the orchard to the wider rhythms of a working farm.