The World of Apples

Apple varieties, Spain

Raxao

Sharp, late-flowering Asturian cider apple, the variety most used in orchards of the Sidra de Asturias designation

History

Raxao is a sharp cider apple from Asturias, one of the native varieties allowed for the protected designation of origin Sidra de Asturias1,5. The designation’s specification explains that Asturian farmers selected their local cider varieties over centuries, grafting from the most productive and best-adapted of their ungrafted seedling trees2. When the regulation of the designation was ratified in January 2003, Raxao was one of the 22 varieties to which its cider was confined, placed in the acid group (ácido)1. The list has since grown to 76 native varieties5.

SERIDA, the agricultural research service of the Principality of Asturias, has characterised and selected the local cider varieties and applied to register them3. Raxao was definitively entered in Spain’s Register of Commercial Varieties by an order of 15 November 20074.

A book on Asturian cider printed in 2021 and published on the website of the designation’s regulatory council names Raxao as the variety most used in the orchards registered with the designation, followed by Regona, Durona de Tresali, De la Riega, Xuanina and Verdialona; it adds that the pattern is very similar in Asturian orchards generally5.

The fruit

The fruit is medium-sized, round to truncated-conical and rather flattened2. Its skin is striped red, with orange-brown tones on the most exposed side, over a green or yellowish-green ground; there is russet in the stalk cavity, the stalk is very short or short and the eye is closed2. SERIDA’s technological data give it a total acidity of 5.30 grams per litre (as sulphuric acid) and total phenols of 0.80 grams per litre (as tannic acid)3. The fruit matures in the first half of November3.

Growing

The tree is vigorous to very vigorous and crops well3. It flowers very late, and its susceptibility to fungal diseases ranges from very low to medium3.

Sources

  1. Order APA/224/2003 of 28 January ratifying the regulation of the protected designation of origin "Sidra de Asturias" (in Spanish), Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación; Boletín Oficial del Estado no. 36, pp. 5524–5533, 2003-02-11. Supports: article 6: cider of the designation made exclusively from apples of the listed varieties, 22 in all, Raxao among those of the acid ("Ácido") technological block.
  2. Application for registration of the protected designation of origin "Sidra de Asturias": document 2, specification (in Spanish), Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Subdirección General de Sistemas de Calidad Diferenciada; Principado de Asturias. Supports: Asturian farmers have for centuries selected varieties from ungrafted seedling trees, choosing the most productive and best adapted, with the best cider apples, to graft from, the result being many local cider varieties; Raxao in the list of authorised varieties, classed "Acida"; Raxao: fruit medium-sized, round to truncated-conical and rather flattened, skin striped red with orange-brown tones on the most exposed side over a green or yellowish-green ground, russeting in the stalk cavity, stalk very short or short, eye closed.
  3. Varieties (in Spanish), Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias, with data from the fruit-growing research programme of SERIDA. Supports: SERIDA, the research body of the Principality of Asturias, characterises, evaluates, selects and improves the local cider varieties and has applied to register traditional and improved varieties; Raxao: technological group acid, vigour high to very high, susceptibility to fungal diseases very low to medium, flowering very late, maturity in the first half of November, good productivity, total acidity 5.30 g/L (as H2SO4), total phenols 0.80 g/L (as tannic acid).
  4. Order APA/3524/2007 of 15 November including various varieties in the Register of Commercial Varieties (in Spanish), Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación; Boletín Oficial del Estado no. 290, pp. 50161–50162, 2007-12-04. Supports: apple (Manzano), definitive registration ("Inscripción definitiva"): 20020252 Raxao, with thirteen other varieties of the Sidra de Asturias list.
  5. Asturias, the world cradle of cider (in Spanish), Lorena Alonso Pérez and Natalia Díaz González (texts); published on the website of the Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias, 2021. Supports: the varieties most used in plantations registered with the DOP, from the highest percentage down: Raxao (acid), Regona, Durona de Tresali, De la Riega, Xuanina and Verdialona, "un dato muy similar al general de las pumaradas asturianas"; the DOP allows 76 native ("autóctonas") cider-apple varieties; printed 30 April 2021.

  • Regona

    A very sharp, slightly bitter Asturian cider apple, the second most used in Sidra de Asturias orchards

    Spain

  • Photograph of Verde Doncella apples at the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, on the tree.

    Verde Doncella

    An old Spanish apple from nineteenth-century nurseries: sweet, pale-skinned and able to keep through the winter

    Spain, 19th century