Dabinett

History

Dabinett is a cider apple of Somerset. The National Fruit Collection thinks that it arose in the Martock–Kingsbury area in the mid-19th century and believes that it was named after a Mr Dabinett¹. The collection also suggests that it may be a seedling of Chisel Jersey¹, an apple that Long Ashton’s juice analyses class, like Dabinett, as a late bittersweet².

The fruit

The fruit is small to medium and rounded; at the National Fruit Collection it measured 62.40 mm wide and 50.00 mm high¹. The green-yellow skin is mostly covered with a red flush and stripes, with little russet, and the flesh is cream-coloured¹. When ripe the flesh is slightly crisp and tastes sweet, astringent and strongly fruity¹.

Long Ashton Research Station’s classification, drawn up by B. T. P. Barker, calls an apple a bittersweet when its juice has less than 0.45 per cent acid and more than 0.2 per cent tannin². Long Ashton’s composite analyses of 1905 to 1975 give Dabinett 0.18 per cent malic acid and 0.29 per cent tannin, and Andrew Lea marks it as one of the cultivars generally regarded as having “vintage quality”². He calls it a medium bittersweet with “soft but full-bodied tannin”³.

At Brogdale, in Kent, it reaches 10 per cent flowering around 11 May and is picked in mid-November¹. Lea gives mid to late flowering and a harvest at the end of October or in November³.

Growing

The National Fruit Collection describes Dabinett as a weak grower that makes a small, spreading tree and crops regularly¹. Lea adds that the small tree is quick to come into bearing and grows neatly, and that it needs plenty of potash³. It is diploid⁴.

Uses

Dabinett is grown for cider, which the National Fruit Collection describes as soft, full-bodied and of high quality¹. Lea calls it a “must have” for its “behaviour and blending”³.