Next in the French line of artisan produced ciders is the Cru de Bruquedalle. This was one of three ciders that I bought from a greengrocers in Neufchatel en Bray. Yup, a greengrocers! The general rule of thumb to buying cidre in France is to look for an AOC labelled cider (or similar - it measn that the contents are controlled and monitored and you can be pretty sure it is a full juice cider). However, this isn't a guarantee of finding good cidre - and indeed many cidre's don't have the label either. The other rule is to never pay less than 3 euro's for a cidre... and this rule would appear to prove true more often than not.
Something else that I have learned by trying the cider in one region is that they all seem to taste pretty similar. More than once, two different cidre's would taste almost identical to each other. This my be because my taste buds aren't developed enough, or because (under AOC etc.) varieties available are controlled and restricted by the powers that be.
This is a fizzy, golden and fairly hazy cidre with a very fruity aroma. It must be because the cidre is only partially fermented before bottling that an apple juice smell persists much more with French cidre. It has a good measure of bittersweet to it as well, and whilst there is acid in the background it doesn't interfere with the overall taste.
It is a little watery though, and the aftertaste dies out pretty quickly following the taste. The high carbonation does lift things a little though and its really a nice cidre worth trying. As mentioned before, I do feel that French cidre is not as exciting or varied as the English cider/cyder/zyder (etc.). But so far the artisans really haven't let themselves down at all.
A score of 79/100 is about as good a bronze apple as you will find:-)
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