Going out of the ordinary and making something different can be done without forgetting where you are located, taking into account the territory that surrounds you and your local custom. Bizio is the most modern cider in the country, but its roots are traditional and its processes slow. Bizio is cider, but it is one that values the land that produces its apples, the time required to make it, the life and work of those who make it.
Maore Ruiz and Omar Escarrá met in 2012, studying at the Basque Culinary Center, and over the years they also shared some work spaces. Years later, Julia Laich and Omar met at the El Sifó d’en Garriga restaurant, where she, after completing a master’s degree in audiovisuals and working at UNTO, the production company of El Comidista, approached the world of restoration. Bizio emerges from an apple orchard without a destination. A producer Maore Ruiz worked with offered her a thousand trees, to see if she could use them. “While working in Norway I had seen other ways of making cider, somewhat different from the method that has always been used here, so I decided that was the way I wanted to work,” says Ruiz. “I admired that Nordic philosophy of wild harvesting, of collecting fruit from neighbors and producers in the area.” And what at first was going to be a test following these precepts, ended up becoming an exciting project to carry out. Together with Julia and Omar, who began by lending a hand and ended up diving headlong into the adventure, in October 2021 they begin the adventure of making their first vintage of cider pét-nat.
What do you drink when you take Bizio? In short, cider. But its preparation, with minimal intervention, following the ancestral method or pét-nat (Pétillant Naturel) and the incorporation of other fruits—blackberry, plum and pear—makes it different. This production process consists of bottling the cider when it has not yet completely finished fermentation, allowing the yeasts to continue working (consuming sugar and generating alcohol and CO₂) inside the bottle. The result is sparkling ciders, unfiltered (which should not be poured), without sulfites, with a less sharp acidity and aromas that are very reminiscent of the original fruit. It is a manual and careful production, based one hundred percent on selected local and quality fruit, pressed almost at the moment of harvesting and made in Zelaia cider bars. Ruiz relates: “We are nomads. Not having fields or machinery, we live collecting here, producing there.” Very close to the countryside, in contact with producers and farmers from nearby towns.
“How can it be that three people under thirty years old, with a project based on manual work, producing a product so valued in local gastronomy, have not received even half a helping hand to get started?” Omar asks. Being young and starting a project with so much risk is not easy. The three combine their dream of keeping Bizio afloat with other jobs, an example of the reality that many young people face when they try to start personal businesses. Despite the difficulty, the second vintage has just gone on sale and the third is already beginning to ferment. Every year its producers vary and, as it is such a natural production, the product may be different from one vintage to another, but that is where its charm lies. What they do maintain is their repertoire of ciders, in which you can find the classic Zelaia, made only with Basque apples; La Pera, result of the co-fermentation of Basque apple must with Conference pear must from La Rioja; Pako, slightly reminiscent of a sour and It is made by adding fresh blackberries to the apple cider fermentation tank; and Basoa, untreated Basque apples and five varieties of plums collected in Duranguesado. Several of them, awarded at the Nordic International Cider Awards. They have also made their first canned cider, Turbia, by macerating whole cherries and plums for four months in apple must. All of them are live drinks, the result of spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts and unpasteurized, so it is recommended to store them cold.
It is a living brand and they have created a branding very powerful that they display in different pop-ups, festivals, events and collaborations, to turn cider into a current and attractive drink. For this reason, and their quality, there are many restaurants that trust them. Their bottles can be found on the menus of restaurants such as Arrea!, in Santa Cruz de Campezo de Álava, Muka, the Aduriz restaurant in San Sebastián, AMA, whose chefs have been the latest revelation chefs at the Madrid Fusión Congress, La Alquimia or Pizza Radical among others, in addition to your website —for an average price of 14 euros— and in some points of sale such as Pastora, in Madrid, or Pa de Kilo, in Barcelona.
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