Woombye cider maker maintains 637 year tradition

The fruit didn’t fall far from the tree ... Woombye’s Martin Rellstab makes cider, just like his family has done since 1383.

Sunshine Coast Cider maker Martin Rellstab was born for the job. His family has been making cider in his hometown of Zurich, Switzerland for an amazing 25 generations.

“Rellstab, literally means milling stick of a cider mill,” Martin said. “We can date that back to 1383.”

The Swiss master fruit grower came to Australia in 2001 and was drawn back to the family industry. Now he works closely with granite belt growers to maintain the quality he demands of his product made at the Kunda Park Factory.

“I know apples,” he said. “I know the process of growing. I know the different varieties and what they will bring to the cider. In the same way different varieties of grapes bring different flavours to wine, different apples bring certain elements to cider. It’s the blend that you create from the different apples that gives each cider its character.”

Martin said only 10 percent of cider that is sold in Australia is made from fresh apples.

“The big commercial guys do quite sweet cider,” he said. “It’s sometimes called lolly water. But when people’s pallets mature they turn to the more traditional style, like ours. Properly made from 100 percent fresh apples, it’s a drier cider. We crush fresh apples and fresh pears and make it the traditional way.”

Sunshine Coast Cider began underneath Martin and his wife Regine’s Woombye house.

“We were there for three years but then we just couldn’t manage it under the house any more.”

They upscaled to their new factory at Kunda Park last year, riding a wave of growth in the flourishing industry before COVID-19 struck and cut sales by a debilitating 96% as pubs, restaurants and venues were shut down.

“So it’s been a tough year. We were in QPAC in Brisbane. We had about 11 outlets within the QPAC Building.  All the bars, all the venues.  Last year we were struggling just to keep up with the orders and this year we planned to develop our local market. But then COVID hit and it’s wiped us out.”

Still, Martin & Regine vow to fight on and have used the time to consolidate, brush themselves off and make a push into bottle shops for diversity.

“On the bright side we’re fine because, like wine, cider keeps,” Martin said. “Some breweries, for instance, had to toss out their beer, whereas our cider gets better with age. In many  ways it’s just like a good wine. We usually keep it for a good six months anyway. So we lost a lot of sales but we didn’t lose our cider. In terms of quality for our customers it actually works out quite well.”

Product varieties include Sunshine Cider, Bottle Fermented, Dry and Still and Cloudy Perry and a Methode Traditionelle Brut Cider.

Try Sunshine Coast Cider every Saturday from 11am-3pm for Tastings, Drinks & Takeaway sales at The Big Pineapple (use COYO exit). Phone 0435 022 975.