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.
Totally agree, I know this stuff is subjective but Dunkertons/Perrys (dowlishwake) in my opinion produce some of the West country's finest ciders.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I am inclined to agree with you (going by what I have tasted so far!)
ReplyDeleteCheers
I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday, when I saw Dunkertons in one of Edinburgh's organic food shops:) It was hidden between Wyld Wood and some organic beer:) The taste was absolutely amazing! Yummy! One of the best ciders I had tried so far! I would say it had even a little smoked flavour to it.
ReplyDeleteNow I can't wait to try the Dunkertons Black Fox as they also had it in store, and it's medium dry:)
My advice to cider lovers living in Scotland - "seek and you shall find":)
A correction:
ReplyDeletethe cider is Medium Sweet, not dry.
That actually implies that it must be really nice drink, if you were so charmed that refrained from your usual philippic against sweetening.
A correction:
ReplyDeletethis is a medium sweet cider.
Cheers, Stepan
Hi. A nit: this one is "Medium Sweet," not dry as the tasting sheet says.
ReplyDeleteMust be wonderful, when it got the golden apple from you in spite of this!
Stepan
Stepan,
ReplyDeleteSorry it took a while to release your comments. Fair cop - I checked the picture and it says so clearly! I will now have to retry it as I stand by the fact that it is very good!