Dunkerton's Browns Cider

 

My humble apologies for going absent for the last few weeks. I have been distracted by other things and only now realise how long it has been.

I managed to mislay my notes for the cider reviews from Winchester Ale and Cider Festival - which I have still not got back yet (I know where they are but have to go and fetch them)! Never mind, in a week or two I will have them back... it's worth the wait - honest!!!

And so, for my next review I turn back to a tried and trusted producer; Dunkertons. It would have been nice for this to have followed the review of the Worley's version I tried at Winchester, but there you go. This is a yardstick for that then.

I really like the labels that Dunkertons put on their bottle (OK,  with the exception of the organic thing). This one is simple, bold and delivers sufficient information without being patronising or in any way 'salesy'. Isn't that what a label is supposed to do? Fair enough, it is labelling at it's simplest, but they manage to do it this way for each of their ciders without giving in to the temptation to put a picture of a drunken farmer on it:-)

Not being that sure if I have tried a Browns before, here is a little information about the variety: Originating in Devon during the early 1900's (the period when a lot of varieties come from). It is a bright red, bittersharp variety of apple used predominantly for cider. It harvests mid season too, making it a useful apple to put against the bittersweets to produce a good balanced west country cider.

This cider pours light golden in colour, bright and with a light sparkle. It smells very earthy - low dull fruit with a very clean sense about it. That could well be the sharpness of the variety on display. It is certainly inviting!

To the taste: it is more a medium than a medium dry, though I can see the sweetening being used as a tool to control the sharpness a touch. It is very nice though. A very deep fruit going on which is rich and sharp. There is tannin, but this is very restrained by everything else. It is the acid that is definitely most notable of the two. Saying that, this isn't one dimensional - it is a complex drink with bold flavours as well as a sharpness. Not one for cider virgins (I think).

How to describe the flavour? Well, it has farmyard right through it - or orchards... you know what I mean. There is also a funkiness in the flavour that I can only describe as being the same as an SV Yarlington Mill. I like it, but have never come across it apart from YM.

The aftertaste is long, fruity and luscious (that is what I have written down!) A real treat.

A very respectable score of 82/100 gives Dunkertons a silver apple. Having now taken the time to check it is their 6th Silver Apple to go alongside a couple of Golds... way to go:-)

Dunkerton's Perry

Apologies for the minor absence, it was not intentional but... there you go. Hopefully I now have time and cider/perry enough to keep things going once again:-) I was intending to say that "this is the last of the perries on my shelf". But then I bought some more - so you have a few more reviews to look forward to.

However, this is the last of the perries that have sat around for a while waiting for me to pluck up enough courage to try them. I am glad I did - not because I won't look back in a few months and wish I had more experience before writing them but because this perry lark now fascinates me! For a drink that is made pretty much using the same practices as cider, using pretty much the same kind of raw materials, it is so much more nuanced and delicate than most of the ciders that I have tried. There are real wine comparisons that you can draw on - far more than with cider. It really is a different kettle of fish. And that has surprised me.

Dunkerton's are among my favourite cider producers, making honest cider and exploring tastes without compromising. I can see them tasting and testing their different blends or single variety ciders; some good and some rejected. Too many cidermakers simply launch wholesale into 'innovative' ideas and throw them out onto the market... Whitehead's 'Beetroot' cider is such an example. If I wanted to drink beetroot juice then I would press some beetroot - not chuck it into cider! And then there are those who believe the key to the treasure chest of cider making lies in a bottle of sweetener...

Okay, enough ranting for now. Lets go for this perry then.

It pours out foamy and clear into the glass. The smell is pungent - no need to stick my nose into this one! However, it is a deep smell: tannic, rich and bold. That makes this unusual for a perry - they are normally more nuanced than this. However, I like it.

The taste is much milder than the smell, oddly. It is very smooth - I am getting a pear/cidery flavour with a touch of farmyard too. There are peaches in the taste as well. This seems to be a theme with good perry... peaches. It is almost creamy, although this could be the fizz.

There is some tannin in here, but very little acid which kind of accentuates the tannin a touch. The aftertaste is long and nice too and lingers. Very good. I am satisfied!

A score of 85/100 puts this almost on par with the Olivers. A silver apple for Dunkertons.

Dunkertons Breakwell Seedling Cider

Having now got the Great British Beer Festival and my trip to France out of the way... lots of lovely cider (or cidre, depending on your perspective). Anyway, taking a glance at my cider shelf, I can see that it has grown somewhat (and a bit dusty too). I am constantly amazed at how much cider is around these days (although perhaps the quality/standards of some of the cider needs a post in its own right!)

Heading for the one that has been shouting 'drink me' the loudest, I opened a bottle of Dunkerton's odd single variety ciders. Breakwell Seedling is an apple that comes from Monmouth (I know that 'cos it's on the bottle'. Digging a little deeper, it appears that the variety was propagated by a guy called (guess what) Breakwell, in Monmouthshire. It is a bittersharp variety - so there should be some aid going on. Something that would be interesting to those who think about such things is that it is an early variety. This is significant - most earlies tend towards poor storage/bletting - which means that it needs processing fairly quickly. The other thing that I would say is that most early varieties are pretty thin... especially when compared to later varieties.

So, having done that research I am not sure what to expect of it now. Surely Dunkerton's wouldn't release a cider that was below par...

It has a moderate sparkle and is fairly light golden in colour. However, the smell is actually rather rich - fruit and a bit of farmyard going on. It settles down well and I am ready to go.

The taste istelf is fairly fruity. Not huge on tannin and more sweet than I would expect from a medium dry (though not badly done by any means). It does have a pretty fruity flavour which dominates both acid and tannin. The acid is light and kind of sits in the background a touch too far for me.

The aftertaste is quite sweet still and moderate in length. At the end it is a little drying... the tannin must sneak up a little.

Overall, this is a really good, drinkable but not hugely challenging cider. I like it. No, I am not mellowing to SV ciders... just to good ones. As with all ciders, if all producers could make cider as well as Dunkerton's then the industry would be in safe hands!

A silver apple for this cider - perhaps the scoring is a little high, but I will stand by it.

Dunkerton's Court Royal Cider

Another interesting cider this time - and it was a close call as to which got the '300th' status. Not that it matters a whole lot of jelly beans to be honest. I have been looking forward to both but was determined to save them until after the Strongbow review (in case it went really badly:-)

I have also marked this review as Cider101. Court Royal is an apple that I haven't come across before - ever. It is also, by the looks of it, an apple that I am unlikely to come across. So in that regard it may be a bit of a pointless cider to include in my list of 'apple types'. However, as one never knows - it is in.

One note about the label. I love it! Dark and brooding, it rather gives it all away on the back with, "We offer this rare cider for your consideration." Very polite and very well taken too. I think Dunkerton's are a company that are really sure about how they present themselves... and it is nice that this company has so often backed up that style with first rate drinks too!

Court Royal apple is a sweet apple. This  means it should be low in both tannin and acid, but ought to be a naturally sweeter drink (assuming all the sugar doesn't ferment out). As a medium dry cider, I am hoping that this Dunkerton's is such an example. I can see, from a brielf search online, that it is regarded as both early and late harvesting. I am inclined to go with late as it is in a description from a nursery - but then you never know. Actually, looking at a search listing, perhaps it isn't so rare as I thought. However, I note on the back of the label for the cider it says that it crops irregularly. This could mean that it is biennial (crops one out of every two years) or that it is unreliable...

On with the review. This cider is rather light golden in colour and has a spritz about it - a light sparkle as it enters the glass that is quite persistent but low. It is bright, which I have come to expect from Dunkerton's. There is also a very interesting smell to it - I have smelled it before in a cider made from Le Brets (another 'sweet' classed apple). I am not expecting big tannin or acid from this - and this smell confirms it. I guess you could say that it is clean and a little one dimensional (aren't all SV ciders to a larger or lesser degree?). There is a faint fruitiness coming off it in the nose too.

Moving on to taste - Oh. Wow. This is a very light and delicate cider indeed, and Dunkerton's would seem to have really captured its character in here! I can see I am going to have to take my time with this cider. This is one of those drinks that you have to appreciate to get all of its sense. There are some faint tannins here, which funnily fit with everything else going on, but actually make it quite drying towards the end.

So, this cider is light and yet full bodies. The fruit is the foremost component - which is great - and the tannin plays second fiddle all the way; merely performing it's role and nothing more. There is very little acid if any I can sense. I have to say I disagree with the medium dry - it is a dry... well, at least at the end it is.

There is a really good, long aftertaste which again is all fruit. I am getting a touch of sweetness on the tongue though, it all but vanishes behind the fruit - but perhaps there is the medium dry bit:-)

I love this - it is an excellent cider and I shall be looking out for Court Royal in future! A score of 89/100 just sees it shy of a gold apple... which is a bit of a shame really - but a really good silver apple to Dunkerton's.

Dunkertons Premium Organic Cider

OK, how did I miss this one in my earlier Dunkerton forays? Well, y'know, I thought I had already done it; I thought cider producers only ever really went in for one 'organic' cider but Dunkertons make a real thing of it!

For once, I am not going to bang on about how cynical I am about the organic movement. My opinions on this subject are probably ingrained on each and every 'organic' review I have done. To be honest, you can't blame the producer from making something of it, and you can't blame the grower from trying with noble aims. I will say just one thing though. One of the orchards I get apples from grows an English variety, Kidds Orange Red. This year they sprayed one of the rows and forgot (or ran out of time and then forgot) to spray the second. The result. One row of saleable Kidds, and I got the other row, which was totally useless to them. These were scabby with bite marks and staining (well, it has been a wet year). OK, it goes into a blend and will press juice just as well as the good ones - but you can see why people spray their trees! (a semicontrolled experiment on Cider Pages... you heard it here first:-)

Winding my neck back in, this cider is moderately fizzy and a beautiful golden colour. It is bright, but the smell more than makes up for it - it is really nice and western smelling - fruity, deep and leathery. Very refined though. Would I be pretentious in suggesting I get a hint of blackberries from this too?

My first comment on tasting would be F R U I T! There is a wonderful vibrant fruit going on in here. The carbonation helps this a bit. It really is in a different league from much of the cider I have tried recently. This is blending at its best - a bit of acid, plenty of moderate tannin that emphasises the fruit in the drink. And the aftertaste is very long and full of tannins... nothing seems to die away.

Well, I could drink that again! It has been a privilege to try this cider - it just demonstrates Dunkertons mastery of the apple. The only thing I don't like? The word 'Premium' in the title! An amazing cider and a score of 94/100 for a gold apple.

Dunkertons Dry Organic Cider

I did wonder for a while whether this was the same stuff that I drank at the Great British Beer Festival [link], however, its a dry and also I have reckoned on the GBBF being supplied the sweeter 'Old Fashioned Cider'.

Anyway, it came from the Bristol Cider Shop (again)... I am sure I must be persuading someone to go and visit them!

The one chink in Dunkerton's armour for me is their insistence on making everything 'organic'. Whilst I accept that it is a good thing to do, I am not convinced of the motivation behind the 'organic lobby'... and in any case a lot of cider orchards are organic by the virtue of noone bothering to spray. So I think their argument is a little thin (unless you are persuaded that having a certificate or a 'number' somehow makes it more acceptable.

Anyway. That is a trifling thing. The fact and truth is that they make great cider. Traditional, full juice and true to their location in Herefordshire. I am sure this is not going to let that down. Now - do I mark them down for slapping 'Organic' over the front of the bottle???

It pours a golden colour which doesn't look filtered. It has a sparkle to it, but I would suggest that it is more likely to be bottle conditioned as opposed to carbonated. Very appetising!

The smell is all bittersweet and tannic. and whilst it has a low fizz, it is very persistent. And then there is that awesome taste of the cider; not too dry, but with a explosion of bittersweet/sharp fruit that is truly a joy. At the end of the mouthful, its all bittersharp, and that is what is left in the mouth until the next gulp.

Whilst it is full of tannins, they don't rule the drink too much. The acid from the bittersharps reigns it back nicely - and it must be thing that is combating the tannins dryness. Well, that and these persistent bubbles that seem to rumble on in the background all the way until the last drop.

Now, this is what I call a worthy cider. And indeed, it gets a gold apple with 93 points. My list of golds is growing into a very nice bunch indeed!

Dunkertons Cider (GBBF)

I had some other reviews planned for this week, though I have moved them to make space for 'reviews frm the Great British Beer Festival'. I would have let them go in turn, but as I am a little ahead of myself with reviews at the moment it makes sense to make them as timely as possible.

Reviewing draught cider from craft/artisan cider makers has a few complications that don't tend to crop up so much with the stock supermarket offerings. These are often standardised, stable products that rarely change from year to year. Well, when I say change, I expect some (Henney's etc.) do change, but not that significantly.

On the other hand, draught cider can vary from batch to batch, let alone year to year. It can also be badly kept (though keeping cider in good condition is still easier than cask beer). Add to this the tendency of large festivals to insist on using plastic polypins, which allow air in as soon as the first glass is poured, and you have a whole lot of things out of the cider makers control.

I think that diversity and change are a strength for craft cider. Ciders mature and age, taste different in different conditions. The flip side is that any review is a sapshot in time. I tasted some good cider and some fairly iffy cider at the GBBF... and if I am to review the cider I have to comment on it. But that is a little unfair, especially as how the cider is kept and how long its allowed to oxidise in a polipin is way out of the control of the cider maker.

Helpfully, none of the ciders I tried had any faults like this. So credit to GBBF. The iffy ones were either sweetened within an inch of their life, made from what seemed like Bramley apples or else just plain odd. Still, variety is the spice of life, so they say!

My first candidate for review from GBBF is the Dunkerton's Cider. I am not sure if this is Black Fox or (more likely) their Old Fashioned Still Cider. It was rated as a Medium Dry cider and cameout nicely hazy - even cloudy.

The sweetness in this cider was definitely present but not exactly intrusive by any measure. It is a cider that is packed with fruit and had a great mild tannin that ran through from the smell to the aftertaste. There wasn't a whole heap of acid either, which did make the cider a little biased to the tannin. Saying that, all this did was to give the cider a deep Herefordshire character (well, Dunkertons are from Herefordshire eh!).

A good, mellow cider which is very drinkable - unfortunately there is far too much here to try so I won't be buying another. Recommended.

As an afterthought, I would say that Dunkerton's really are masters of cider making, and this is a bit of a safe, reliable starting point... no, the cider itself isn't 'safe' - its just that every time I have ever had a Dunkertons it has never once disappointed me.

A score of 84/100. A silver apple. A great start!

Dunkertons Black Fox Cider

 

We all come to various things with preconceived ideas and experiences, and tasting cider is really no different to this. I already know that Black Fox is one of my favourite ciders. If I wanted a true benchmark against which other ciders were judged then this outght to be it (well, this and maybe one or two others). That way I can measure the truely great and good ciders that I try. Magners was, perhaps, aiming a bit low?! Nah... its all good:-)

Dunkertons are a moderately sized cider producer based in Herefordshire who have been making cider to a Herefordshire style since the very late 70's. They also produce a perry (OK, I just sneaked a look at their website) and another 'organic' cider. OK, I will forgive them the Organic status... why not (if you don't spray your trees, does that automatically qualify??) though I am a little sceptical of the organic movement.

This cider is a really good example of a Herefordshire cider. There are both bittersweets and bittersharps present here. And I am positive that there is a good chunk of Kingston Black too (although it could be Stoke Red - I am not an expert!). What I really like about it is that it isn't dumbed down - its a Herefordshire cider not a ubiquitous cider drink as so many of the larger producers seem to have gravitated towards. 

Generally, I tend to class things as being Eastern counties or Western. In reality this is a bit of a simplification as each region has its own character. Herefordshire is about cider apples... no desert fruit. Similarly, Somerset is about cider apples too, although much more bittersweet than sharp. Devon and Dorset are less so. I recommend James Crowdens book, Ciderland, for anyone wanting to explore this further.

The cider itself is amber/gold in colour with a light carbonation. At 7% its got the full measure of fermentation in it. Like the Henney's Vintage, its the proper strength for a cider and needs to be treated as such - if you're a session cider drinker then this probably isn't for you. The aroma is tannic and sharp at the same time and the aftertaste is lingering.

Another silver apple to dish out. At 83/100, this is one that I would recommend to anyone that is seeking to try only excellent ciders!