Still at the Great British Beer Festival (thank God for third of pints:-) and time to move back to a more traditional region - Gloucestershire. And another dry cider. I am very impressed with the number of dry's on this year... in fact only one or two were labelled as sweet. I have no evidence, but I would say that there is a trend towards drier ciders these days (or maybe I am just becoming blind to sweeter stuff!)
Doing a quick search on Cadogans reveals that their real name is Cadogans Cider and Perry, who have been established (as orchardists anyway) as far beck as the 1960's - probably longer. They may wish to know (if they ever read this) that the link to their website doesn't work. But then this seems to be not uncommon for cider producers!
What is their cider like then? It is served as a golden cider which is naturally hazy (rather than cloudy) and the smell is heavily western in style. Heavily generally means it is earthy and fruity with a touch of petroleum in the smell. I am getting a bit of sweet from it too, so I am not sure if the label is going to turn out to be correct. Its not the first draught cider that I have experienced this on, although the other where this smell was noticeable was from Somerset.
And boy, its tannic. It is also very fruity as well. It does contain some good sharps too - bitter sharps can give quite stark acid, and I am sure that's what is present here. This isn't bad though - its a really nice cider without being too balanced or 'safe'. The tannin is drying whilst the sharpness wakes you up. To call it 'rough' would be fair, but not in a bad way. Its earthy; a real cider drinkers cider which has no frills or airs.
The aftertaste is long and tannic, with the acid dying off. Yum, its nice to find a real honest cider which makes no apology for itself!
I must admit I am a little surprised it didn't score an apple, with a score of 67/100. Good cider though.
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