“They’re gorgeous little beasts,” Eddie Izzard said on the subject of pears in her mid-1990s show Definite Article, “but they’re ripe for half an hour and you’re never there!” Little did she know that she was touching on one of the difficulties of making perry – the fermented juice of perry pears – a drink that remains, in comparison with cider, a relative cottage industry.
There are some notable exceptions to that rule (anyone familiar with Babycham and Lambrini will have tried a commercial perry, albeit an industrially made one), but the perry I’m interested in is made from specific perry pears grown on vast trees in ancient, biodiverse orchards in the British West Country and northern France; it is made in small batches, because, as Izzard points out, pears are ripe for a notoriously short time; additionally, they begin to rot from the inside out and, such is the height of those gnarly branches, they can be difficult to pick, too. “Perry-making is hard to do well,” says Felix Nash of the Fine Cider Company, a retailer that specialises in craft drinks made from apples and pears.
Nash holds that “fine perry”, a term he uses to distinguish his perries from the industrial kind, is a blank slate; unlike cider, it has no mass-market presence beyond the likes of Babycham, which is largely seen as a kitsch anachronism. The fine perries that Nash sells run the gamut from medium-dry and sparkling to sweet and still; aperitifs to pudding accompaniments. He lists vintage perries, single-varietals and blends of pears with names that make me want to take up wassailing: hendre huffcap, butt, green horse, thorn, gin … Perry-making dates back centuries in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and is said to have been one of Elizabeth I’s favoured tipples.
Historic perry may be, but, as we head into 2026’s harvest season, it occurs to me that there is much to love about it for the modern drinker. It has a naturally low ABV (usually 5-6%) and pears contain sorbitol, a non-fermentable sugar alcohol that can leave even a technically dry perry with an impression of sweetness. It’s also surprisingly food-friendly; Nash cites the classic pairing with oysters or cheese, while I enjoyed a bottle of Tom Oliver’s sparkling medium-dry We Aren’t Stopping Now with chilli paneer; it would also be a doozy with most oily fish.
Then there’s the price. The production of fine perry has all the elements of fine wine, Nash says, reflecting fruit varietal, terroir, vintage and skill (some of his perries are made using the champagne method, others have tannins with the grip of red wine): “It’s largely the little known nature of great perry that has helped keep the cost where it currently is.” Without wine’s prestige, and with relatively minimal transport costs and, at those ABVs, considerably lower UK alcohol duty than wine, some of the bottles in today’s picks are nothing short of a giveaway.
Six perries – and what to pair with them
Oliver’s Fine Perry Wild Ferment Rolling Blend £3.50 (330ml) Secret Bottle Shop, 6.5% A great introduction to fine perry, this has notes of elderflower and is happy with everything from butter to spice.
Ross On Wye Cider & Perry Company Red Longdon Perry 2025 £12 (750ml) Fine Cider, 5.8%. Dry enough for an aperitif, grippy enough for a roast or a cheeseboard – extraordinary and moreish.
Little Pomona Fausset Pét Nat Perry 2023 £15 (750ml) Little Pomona, 6%. Juicy, aromatic and sparkling single-varietal perry. I drank it with mapo tofu.
Wilding Cider Moorcroft 2022 £25 (750ml) Fine Cider, 10.1%. Acid, structure, tannin and an unusually high ABV make this single-varietal perry an excellent stand-in for pudding wine.
Eric Bordelet Poiré Authentique £16.50 (750ml) Gnarly Vines, 5%. A Norman perry made by a one-time sommelier, this is off-dry, biodynamic and bloody lovely.
Oliver’s We Aren’t Stopping Now 2024 £14 (750ml) Fine Cider, 5.5%. Struggling to find a wine pairing for your curry night? Look no further than this elegant, medium-dry perry made by a titan in British cider- and perry-making.
