After the Premier Cru, the Organic from Aspall is probably the cyder I am most familar with. I have mentioned before that I quickly moved on to things like Aspall after Magners - and if you buy a bottle of Magners and a bottle of either Premier Cru or Organic I am sure you will understand why.
Now, to rant or not to rant? Rant about what? Rant about the idea and concept of 'organic' stuff! Particularly cider (sorry... cyder) To some degree, a lot of cider orchard are organic - or at least would be if they could afford the soil associations fees. And if an orchard uses pesticides or spray to help them obtain the perfectly rounded and crunchy examples that mose supermarkets and customers demand, then they forfeit the 'organic' status. Anyway, I have yet to find a cider maker who really cares two hoots whether his cider apples are crunchy or not, and if they are blemish free and/or perfectly round. In fact, to make decent cider, its better that the apples have gone past their crunchy stage:-)
I haven't said very much about Aspells Organic yet, have I! Well, to start it has a nice cidery aroma, although its pretty fizzy (this dies down pretty quickly once its poured out). To taste, Organic gives a good sharp hit - more eastern counties than the other Aspall ciders I have tried so far (and far more than the Thatchers Cox!!). There are also a few tannins in it, although the appley, desert flavour is the boss.
There isn't a huge aftertaste to it, the crispness does liner though. It doesn't say on the bottle what it classes itself as, although its probably a medium dry - a very nice full flavour that is neither 'safe' (I have to say that having tried a few eastern style ciders from the big producers, they do seem to err on the cautious side for their eastern products) or simply a standardised cider taste.
Nice one Aspalls. A jolly good 72/100 and a bronze apple from me:-)
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