Why go
The apple press at Igartubeiti and a cider-house meal tell complementary parts of the same story. One shows the farmhouse machinery behind production; the other connects cider with gathering around food, helping you understand why this drink belongs to both rural and social history.
The full story
Sagardo, the Basque word for cider, literally means apple wine. It is made from fermented apple juice; traditional Basque cider is not given added carbonation. Apple-growing suited the wetter northern landscape, where wine from the southern plains of Álava and Navarre was historically harder to obtain across the mountains. Cider also travelled by sea. Basque whalers and cod fishers carried barrels aboard ships on long voyages, including those to Newfoundland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. That maritime connection broadens a story often told only through orchards and farmhouse presses. Astigarraga is especially associated with cider houses, or sagardotegiak. The new cider’s tasting season has traditionally run through the first months of the year, but individual establishments have their own opening arrangements. Food is part of the experience: salt-cod omelette, steak, sheep’s-milk cheese, walnuts and quince belong to the familiar meal. For the production side, Igartubeiti’s preserved press offers a tangible link between apples, timber architecture and household work.