Godshill Cider Co. Rumpy Pumpy Scrumpy

First off, being 1 year into this blogging thing, I thought it was about time the blog had a theme that fit with apples better. Hope you like these apples:-) Also, it would be very rude not to say thanks to everyone who has read the pages and got something from it. It would be nonsense to think of these ramblings as 'just for my own use' or some kind of personal journal - especially when there have been over 23,000 page views so far. Thank you all!!

So I was recently away for a romantic weekend - a nice, relaxing trip to the Isle of Wight.. Aha. The Isle of Wight has 2 cider producers (well, I think it has 3, but I couldn't be sure). And as the Isle is only about 5 feet long (hee hee) I thought it would be a nice gesture to drag the good lady around to pick some samples up:-)

And so we come to the first of this crop; Rumpy Pumpy Scrumpy. OK. Silly name... I have heard worse though. Its described as a medium dry and comes with a list of carious cider varieties used in its making. This list includes some varieties that I have to admit I have never heard of (Sweet Cleave, Tan Harvey and Town Farm no. 59 to name them). So this should be a nicely tannic and well balanced cider. The apples (well the ones I know about) cover all the bases - sweet, bittersweet, sharp and bittersharp.

The cider is flat when poured... yummy! I hope the medium dry is on the dry side too. Its a pale golden colour and when you smell it, it smells well matured and clean; a nice cidery taste which has a hint of smokiness to it that makes me think its been matured well.

On the first taste, this is a very nice cider - its a little sharp, and the sweetness comes through loud and clear. There are some very mild tannins to it as well. Mind you, there are not stacks of them, and the acidity wins through by quite a way. Its more eastern than western counties in fact (despite the use of a broad variety of cider fruit.

This doesn't detract from my enjoyment though. in fact (and I shouldn't muddy the reviewing waters here - I am sure I made one similar to this a couple of years back. But then I was using desert fruit as well as cider fruit... well, I was using whatever I could get my hands on!)

It would appear to have been filtered, which may have removed much of the tannin. It is there, just in the background a bit too far for me. The aftertaste is pleasant though, and on the whole I recommend this cider. Its just a little less balanced than its label promises.

A good bronze apple for the original Godshill cider, with 75/100 from me. Worth the trip (and the grief!)