Asturian cider culture (Spain)
Nomination: Representative List 2024
EN: The pomarada is a fundamental part of the peasant exploitation and of the agrarian landscape. It is collected with the family in morning and afternoon shifts, with women standing out in this work, and with neighbors and friends in andecha (collaborative communal work typical of traditional rural areas).
EN: Apple collection in Llagar Piñera. Periodically, different harvesting operations are carried out, and the branches of the trees are shaken at the end of the harvest. The cider makers with the greatest capacity have large apple orchards attached to the winery, where the harvesters and local residents come to unload
EN: The good cider owes much to the zeal, care and cleanliness of the manufacturer. Since ancient times they insist that a scrupulous neatness should be observed in the press and that the apple had to be selected before crushing
EN: The industry has become more technological with hydraulic and pneumatic presses, but the procedures in the treatment of the raw material and the wine continue to be the traditional ones, even in the most modern presses. In the picture, the Llagar de Sidra Peñón
EN: An old cider maker still using his centenary cider press for family self consumption in Cabranes council, a rural area of central Asturies, in the 'Comarca de la Sidra' area
EN: The escanciador is a highly esteemed professional, and his functions are an attraction that is difficult to match when it comes to displaying all the qualities of the cider. It is a technique perfected over the centuries and prestigious competitions are held
EN: The champion Laura Ovín Ania, pouring a 'culete' to the jury of the cider contest, during the 28th Xixón Natural Cider Festival
EN: The chigre and the llagar are indispensable places in the Asturian forms of recreation and are intensely linked to popular leisure. Cider is rarely drunk individually, being group consumption the way in which sociability is manifested
EN: The espicha, a custom whose origin is found in agrarian communitarianism, extended to urban areas and constitutes the recreational occasion of consumption most closely linked to the drinking of cider and the commensality associated with it
EN: The projection of group identity is manifested through festivals in which cider culture is an essential ingredient. The aim is to promote one of the most emblematic identity references of the region. In the picture, the simultaneous pouring of the Gijón/Xixón Cider Festival
