Independent Kiwi cider company takes out top international award

Glenn Williams of Hop, Burns & Black accepting Zeffer's trophy for best cider on their behalf. Photo / Supplied

An independent Kiwi cider maker has won an international trophy naming their cider the best in the world.

Zeffer Cider Co's "Cidre Demi-Sec" was the only cider to take out one of ten trophy titles at the 2017 International Brewing & Cider Awards in London this week.

The traditional French-style cider was judged by a tasting panel of 45, who sampled more than 1,100 beer and ciders from 21 countries.

Head cider maker Jody Scott said he was "very proud" of the win.

"We really wanted to test this cider on the world stage, especially in the UK as the home of cider, to see how it would stack up.

"To find out we'd taken out the trophy at an event with such strong heritage and long international standing is the pinnacle for us."

The International Brewing and Cider Awards is one of the longest-standing beer and cider competitions in the world, with the first competition running in 1888.

The small Zeffer team hadn't been able to travel to the UK for the awards, but their friends from local brewery Hop, Burns & Black collected the award on their behalf.

The winners were announced overnight New Zealand time, and Scott found out first thing the next morning.

He called his team and they celebrated - how else - with a cider in the Zeffer cellar.

The winning cider, Zeffer's Cidre Demi-Sec. Photo / Supplied

The bulk of Zeffer's apples come from the Hawke's Bay, but fruit for their boutique ciders was also sourced from Nelson, Matakana and Canterbury.

"This is a cider we make once a year with select heritage cider apple varieties and wild fermentation," Scott said.

Zeffer began in Matakana in 2009 and has won more than 50 awards since then, including a Brewers Guild of New Zealand Award win last year, also for the Cidre Demi-Sec.

In March, Zeffer attracted $1.2million from 260 private investors in just five days using the online funding platform Snowball Effect.

The company used the money to launch its Asian export strategy, focusing on China and Thailand, and to further increase its domestic resources to drive growth.