Glossary · Culture
Sagardoa
Basque. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Also written sagardo. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The Basque word for cider. It is usually parsed as sagar (apple) and ardo (wine) — apple wine — and the drink is central to Basque food culture.
- Subject
- Culture
- Language
- Basque
- Also written
- sagardo
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Euskal Sagardoa
Basque cider under its own protected designation, made from Basque-grown apples in the *sagardotegi* tradition of barrel service and dry, high-acid, still cider.
Region
Basque Country
The Spanish Basque provinces, where dry *sagardo* is drunk standing at the barrel through a defined winter season, poured on the call of *txotx*, and eaten with a fixed cider-house menu.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Culture
Sagardotegi
A Basque cider house: a working cidery with a dining room, open from January to spring, where guests eat a set menu and drink from the *kupela*, the great vats, at the cry of *txotx*.
Culture
Txotx
The call — and the small wooden peg it names — announcing that a vat is open in a *sagardotegi*, at which guests come with their glasses to catch a thin jet of cider straight from the barrel.
Cider
Sidra natural
Asturian and Basque cider fermented to complete dryness from pure juice, unfiltered, uncarbonated and bottled without added gas or sugar. It is poured from a height to raise a momentary foam.
History
Sicera
The Late Latin word from which cider, *cidre*, *sidra* and *sagardo* descend, itself from Greek *sikera* and ultimately from a Semitic root meaning strong drink.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Euskal Sagardoa / Sidra Natural del País Vasco protected designation
Eusko Label / Basque Government · designation authority · registered as competent for this subject
NEIKER Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development
NEIKER · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24