Clash Of The Ciders
Longueville
House cider, medium dry, 5%ABV, 50cl, €3.99 at Bradley’s, North Main Street,
Cork.
Stonewell
cider, medium dry, 5.5% ABV, 50cl, €3.99 at Bradley’s, North Main Street, Cork.
The Longueville House comes in a distinctive
squat bottle and its lovely black and gold label is less eye-catching than that
on the Stonewell. It has a nice fruity aroma and a rich amber colour in which
you see streams of little bubbles constantly rising.
Very pleasant on the palate
where the fruit is well balanced, the kind of balance you’d expect to find in a
well made West Country cider, a property previously remarked on by the Apple
Farm’s Con Traas in a recent newsletter.
The Stonewell’s Celtic design really stands
out on the shelf and there is also a huge visual contrast in the glass. The
Stonewell colour is so much lighter, more like honey, and again the rising
bubbles are obvious.
Its aroma is lighter,
more apple-ly, very pleasant indeed. And it is lighter also on the palate, but
nowhere near as dry as the LH. And that factor could well make it a favourite
with the ladies, well at least with the lady of this house. It is marginally higher
in alcohol and that did not go down as well with the lady.
As far as this amateur
referee is concerned, my Clash of the Ciders will have to go to a replay (at
least one) after this high scoring draw. Final score: 5 stars each. No need to
seek a winner here but rather let us celebrate that, in less than 12 months, we
have two outstanding craft ciders being made in the county.
If you do want to set
up your own tasting match, just call into Bradley’s and get a few of each and see
which one suits you. If you want to know more about cider, click on the link
below where you’ll find info such as:
“The flavour of cider
varies. Ciders can be classified from dry to sweet. Their appearance ranges
from cloudy with sediment to completely clear, and their colour ranges from
light yellow through orange to brown. The variations in clarity and colour are
mostly due to filtering between pressing and fermentation. Some
apple varieties will produce a clear cider without any filtration. Both
sparkling and still ciders are made; the sparkling variety is the more common.”
No comments:
Post a Comment