Libuše 2017 – Utopia

Being sick and tired of their lives in Prague, the entrepreneurial young couple Eva and Ivo Being sick and tired of their lives in Prague, the young couple Eva and Ivo Laurin decided to quit their jobs and leave the city behind. They wanted to eat clean and healthy produce. They wanted to grow, raise, forage and ferment.

So when they got the chance to buy an ancient castle from the 15th century in Sudkův Důl in the rural highlands near Tábor in the Czech Republic, they decided to go off the grid and realise what at the time appeared to be a naïve and utopian dream.

Eva and Ivo planted trees and shrubs, made vegetable gardens, started raising bees, sheep, geese, ducks, chickens, carp and trout. And perhaps most importantly they started making apple cider from old Czech heritage varieties harvested in a number of small orchards around the village. And thus Utopia was born.

Back in the day the rural castle was home to Barbora, Libuše, Anežka and dozens of other girls and women, and so each oak cask in their cellar bears the name of one of them. Filled with single varietal apple juice or with an orchard blend, each cask gives birth to apple cider of a truly unique character.

All Utopia ciders are spontaneously fermented and aged for 12 months sûr lie in 225 liter neutral oak casks, something that enhances their mouthfeel and wild aromatics. Eva and Ivo bottle each cask individually into a small batch of 300 bottles bearing the casks name and vintage. Pure and simple. They claim that the quality of the apple juice is so high that the ciders basically make themselves, and when you taste the ciders you actually believe them.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>

The highly active and entrepreneurial couple recently planted a two-hectare orchard with old Czech heritage varieties, local seedlings and British cider apple varieties. The orchard floor and soil is bustling with life. There’s no spraying and no vole poisons. Just the neighbour’s horse manure and their apple pomace compost.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>

In a few years time Eva and Ivo will be able to harvest apples from this beautiful orchard and we’re truly excited to follow them on their journey.