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The Cider Mill Find out about our facilities

Over 40,000 square meters of facilities to produce a unique and exclusive product.

Home El Gaitero The cidery

The Cider Mill

El Gaitero is produced in an Asturian cider mill boasting a long-standing tradition dating back over a hundred years, and where visitors can enjoy a unique tour and discover the secrets of the essential flavour of Asturias: cider. 

The history, dedication and passion that characterise this company can be sensed in each area of the facilities at La Espuncia. From the canigú – the reception area where the apples are delivered for pre-sorting and washing – and the Press Room – where the apples are crushed and the first juices extracted – to the bottling and packaging lines. Yet the true heart of Valle Ballina y Fernández is to be found in its four mills, known as Central, Provincial, Americas and the area housing the new stainless steel vats.

El Gaitero’s facilities at La Espuncia extend over more than 40,000 square metres on a strategically located site on the shores of the Villaviciosa tidal estuary. The hundred year old cider mill, declared one of the finest examples of Asturias’ industrial heritage, houses innovative state-of-the-art technologies. 

The Central Mill was the first to be built over a hundred and twenty years ago. Its three floors house 200 tanks of varying capacities: 90,000, 20,000, 10,000 and 5,000 litres. The Provincial and Americas mills, which also date back over a century, were built as a tribute to El Gaitero cider’s major importers both in Spain and America. Their names and coats-of-arms are engraved on all the tanks, which can hold 60,000 or 70,000 litres of cider.

The cider is fermented in these three areas, before being transferred for a final phase before bottling. The new mill has almost a hundred carbon steel vats that can each hold up to 56,000 litres. It is here that the cider is filtered for the last time using state-of-the-art cross-flow filters.

The 40,000 square metre site at La Espuncia also includes the company’s new offices, the building housing El Gaitero’s permanent collection and a tasting room where the thousands of visitors that tour the mill each year have the opportunity to sample El Gaitero’s finest ciders.