Seidear (The Wee Scottish Cider Company)
Seidear — made by The Wee Scottish Cider Company at Kingcausie on Deeside, just south of Aberdeen — is billed as the first Scottish cider made by keeving and the champagne method. Founder Christian Stolte, German-born and originally in Aberdeen for the oil industry, began making cider from his own garden apples before turning the hobby into a cidery, producing around 3,500 bottles a year. The apples are old varieties gathered from historic walled gardens across the north-east — Haddo, Cluny, Craigievar, Falkland and private orchards — and the process takes at least a year from harvest to bottle: keeving, wild fermentation, secondary fermentation in champagne bottles, daily hand riddling, and disgorgement.
Seidear is Scotland's occasion cider — a keeved, bottle-fermented sparkler that's pitched as an aperitif or celebration bottle rather than a session drink. With only around 3,500 bottles made a year from heritage north-east apples, it's genuinely scarce, and the keeving gives it a naturally sweeter, fruitier profile than the bone-dry traditional-method ciders. Think of it as the prosecco-moment alternative in Scottish cider, with Naughton as the champagne-moment one.
The Seidear (The Wee Scottish Cider Company) range
Seidear Sparkling Cider
The single product: juice is keeved (a Normandy technique that preserves natural sweetness), wild-fermented, then given a second fermentation in champagne bottles for at least six months, hand-riddled daily for weeks, disgorged by freezing the bottle neck, and finished with cork and cage. Wine writer Rose Murray Brown described a 2020 bottling (6.4% ABV) as 'yellow gold' with 'ripe fleshy fruit aromas, creamy mousse' and a tart-apple mid-palate with good balance and length. The producer suggests serving it chilled as an aperitif.
Available in: Champagne-style bottles, cork and cage
Where to buy
Direct from seidear.com, plus a small number of Scottish stockists — Baxters of Scotland sells it online. Production is around 3,500 bottles a year, so availability is genuinely limited.
Food pairings
- As a chilled aperitif (the producer's own serving suggestion)
- Shellfish and smoked fish
- Soft and creamy cheeses
- Celebration toasts in place of prosecco
The producer's own tagline — 'this is not cider, this is seidear' — tells you how they want it approached: chilled, in a flute, at a celebration. Whether the distinction convinces you or not, the process is real: keeving is a genuinely difficult, slow Normandy technique that very few UK producers attempt, and combining it with hand-riddled bottle fermentation at a 3,500-bottle scale is labour-intensive to the point of stubbornness. If you spot a bottle, buy it — production this small doesn't hang around.
Frequently asked questions
+What is Seidear?
Seidear is a keeved, bottle-fermented sparkling cider made by The Wee Scottish Cider Company at Kingcausie on Deeside, near Aberdeen — billed as the first Scottish cider made by keeving and the champagne method. The name is the producer's playful respelling of cider; their tagline is 'this is not cider, this is seidear'.
+What is keeving?
Keeving is a traditional Normandy technique in which the apple juice forms a natural pectin gel that strips out much of the yeast nutrient, forcing a very slow, partial fermentation. The result keeps natural sweetness and fruit character without added sugar or sweeteners. It's difficult and slow — one reason very few UK producers attempt it — and Seidear combines it with a champagne-style second fermentation in the bottle.
+Who makes Seidear?
Christian Stolte, a German-born former oil-industry professional who settled in Aberdeenshire and began making cider from his own garden apples. He now produces around 3,500 bottles a year at Kingcausie on Deeside, using old apple varieties from historic walled gardens across north-east Scotland such as Haddo, Cluny, Craigievar and Falkland.
+Where can I buy Seidear?
Directly from seidear.com, or from Baxters of Scotland online. With production at roughly 3,500 bottles a year, stockists are few and bottles sell through — if you see it, don't wait.
Other Scottish cider producers
Naughton Cider Company
Naughton Cider Company is the most ambitious producer in Scottish cider — a family-run operation on the Naughton estate in north-east Fife, near Balmerino, founded by Peter Crawford, who spent over twenty years as a champagne specialist and importer before turning to cider. From 2018 he revived the estate's dormant orchards — including a walled orchard dating back centuries — and planted around 1,500 trees of classic cider varieties such as Dabinett, Kingston Black and Yarlington Mill. The cider is made with full champagne technique: fermentation in French oak casks that previously held champagne, secondary fermentation in the bottle, hand riddling, disgorgement, and long ageing on the lees.
Cairn o' Mohr
Cairn o' Mohr (pronounced 'cairn o' more') is primarily Scotland's best-known fruit-wine producer rather than a dedicated cidery — founded in 1987 by Ron Gillies, the family-run Perthshire producer makes oak leaf wine, raspberry wine, strawberry wine, elderflower wine, and more. The cider is a smaller part of the range but worth knowing about: their Carse of Gowrie Cider is made from Perthshire-grown apples and has a properly traditional character.
Related articles
9 min read
What Is Haggis Made Of? An Honest Guide to Scotland's National Dish
What haggis is actually made of, how to cook it without splitting it, why America banned it, and how to serve it properly — an honest guide to Scotland's most misunderstood dish.
12 min read
Best Scottish Shortbread: The Brands Worth Buying (and the Ones to Skip)
The Scottish shortbread brands worth buying, from Walkers and Dean's to Shortbread House of Edinburgh and island artisans — classic vs all-butter vs petticoat tails, supermarket vs gift tin.
11 min read
Edinburgh Christmas Market Food and Drink: What to Eat, Drink and Buy
A food-and-drink guide to Edinburgh's Christmas Market: the German stalls, the mulled wine, the Scottish producers worth seeking out, festive food gifts, and how to eat well without overpaying.