Winter Cider
The concept of cider being more than just a summer drink is not a new one and I have also heard that drum banged by many a cidermaker. There are of course technical reasons why ciders are appropriate winter drinks: tannic, earthy ciders typical of the West Country stand up well to the richer, heartier fare of the colder months.
Additionally, many of these ciders find themselves fermented or aged in wooden barrels which impart soft, vanilla-y characteristics and intense influences from whatever wondrous liquid previously called the barrel home. This can add further intensity and complexity to stand up to the bolder flavours of the seasonal period.
More than that, there is something soulful about drinking cider during the colder, darker months in which it is often pressed, blended and bottled. The idea of cider being a summer drink is both historical, as cider was often drunk as soon as fermentation was finished, typically late spring into the summer, and modern, driven by Big Cider and their pint-of-cider-over-ice shtick which has been continued by their cousins in Big Fruit Cider. But as we have discussed before, cider can be so much more than what a minority of very loud and wealthy corporate voices tell us it can be. In this piece I’ve taken some of my favourite moments from the colder months and paired them with a cider to showcase the versatility of cider and the place it can hold outside of its traditional summer stomping grounds.
Raison d’Etre
Bonfire Night, Pig Roll, smell of gunpowder in the air
Is 5th November in winter? I think most would argue it isn’t but it is probably the first event of the year where we in the UK get properly wrapped up warm and go and stand in a muddy field to watch a huge bonfire and a fireworks display. I’d argue that’s quite a wintry thing to do even if it falls outside of the traditional December to February bounds of Northern Hemisphere winter. Ross Cider’s Raison d’Être is a perfect Bonfire Night cider, suited to penetrating the dark and the cold like warm firelight. It is not often that you find an aroma pairing for a drink but Raison’s most prominent characteristic is the bold oak and smoke barrel influence which would sit magnificently amongst the woodsmoke and gunpowder of Bonfire Night. Often Bonfire Night is accompanied with some kind of pork: be it hogroast or barbecued sausages; and either with fried onions would provide a fatty, salty, savoury counterpoint to Raison’s exceptional showcase of fruit and barrel in harmony.
Bacchus
Wine Lees Cider, Party Season
No matter what holiday you celebrate, there is nothing more seasonal than a good old party. Often attended by people for whom you have a broad spectrum of feelings and, in my experience, featuring a clothed table pushed up against a wall and stocked with a plethora of bottles and cans from humble macro lagers and ciders to the top-shelf supermarket Rioja your Uncle brought. Sharing is encouraged so it can be difficult to find the right thing to bring. Those of us who work in drinks and go to great efforts to drink broadly and refine our palates sometimes need a reminder that not everybody loves Verhaeghe’s Duchess de Bourgogne or, as a friend likes to refer to it, “the ketchup beer.” For this occasion I can think of no better cider than Once Upon A Tree’s Bacchus, a co-ferment featuring the Bacchus English wine yeast.
I drank it recently as part of Simon Day’s Manchester Cider Club talk and it was absolutely stunning. Comfortably one of the best ciders I have drunk this year. Aforementioned “ketchup beer” friend said it was reminiscent of a French 75 with huge elderflower on nose and tongue and big, bright, fresh acidity. It’s hard to remember that this is a cider especially when the Bacchus yeast brings such a vinous quality (which is a lazy thing to say but it’s really hard to pin down exactly where the cider ends and the wine begins). In terms of flavours these don’t scream winter but in terms of bringing the best damn drink to the party, Bacchus is the one.
Anatomy
Christmas Morning, with smoked salmon
In my family we eat smoked salmon on Christmas morning. There was a year where my Dad made a full English breakfast and nobody wanted to eat Christmas dinner until about 8pm so to this day we eat smoked salmon for breakfast with cheap Buck’s Fizz from Tesco or, as my sister and I got older, Prosecco sans orange juice. It’s light and lovely and is the perfect finger food to eat between opening presents. I can’t go home for Christmas this year because of Covid-19 but I have had a bottle of the wonderful Tinston Anatomy stashed since about August that I had planned to take back to my Mum’s to have on Christmas morning with smoked salmon.
The bready, yeasty character underpins a bright aroma of green apple, gooseberry and sea salt. In the mouth it’s all stone fruit - apricot and peach - and tart green apples and mouthwatering gooseberry acid with a soft, pillowy mouthfeel and a fine, elegant sparkle. It’s hard to believe this is a single variety Bramley cider such is its complexity. All I want on Christmas morning is to not feel too full and to feel mildly but gracefully drunk and I can’t think of a finer cider to achieve that than Tinston’s Anatomy.
Brännland Fatlagrad Barrique 2017
Christmas Evening, with a rich, fat cheese board
This list would not be complete without an ice cider, cider’s answer to port, sherry or madeira. Ice cider is fermented from concentrated juice, traditionally this is done one the tree by the cold temperatures of Canada and Scandinavia but in recent years there have been some fantastic examples of using cryoconcentration methods (for further information have a look at Scrattings great little explanation here). Now, the only ice cider I drank this year was a sample of Once Upon A Tree’s Blenheim Superb 2019 which was unbelievably good but they’ve already had one shout out in this piece so I have turned to my good friend Adam Wells of Malt fame for some notes on an interesting ice cider from Brännland. The Fatlagrad Barrique 2017 is part of Brännland’s barrel-aging programme and spent time in Austrian oak casks. So as not to bastardise Adam’s wonderful notes I will just include them here:
On the nose: Instantly darker and richer than the standard Brännlands, whilst sharing their DNA. Stewed black cherry, cassis, tarte tatin and brown sugar. Blueberry compote. Oak spices in clove and nutmeg form. As ever with Brännland there’s a lovely streak of freshness, but the aromas really do cover the whole octave.
In the mouth: That’s gorgeous. Gloriously unctuous texture and sweetness scored through by tempered acidity. Balance and harmony and complexity to die for. Astonishing intensity of flavours; more black cherry and blackcurrant pie, dark wine gums, cola syrup, raisin and sweet baking spices along a mouthwatering finish that lasts forever.
Conclusions: Absolutely magnificent. Brännland’s already-phenomenal 2017 taken to the next level by a clearly superb wine cask. Not cheap, but as a special treat for Christmas it’s worth every single penny.
So there you have it. In the final hours of Christmas Day, when a few have already sloped off to bed, instead of reaching for the port get an ice cider to pair with your cheeseboard. Ideally that cheeseboard has a Stilton so stinking the air around it shimmers and a Cheddar mature enough to buy its own drinks. The sweet, wintry fruit and mouthwatering acidity will provide a tremendous counterbalance to the fat, the salt and the richness.
Tamoshanta
Burns Night
My family isn’t Scottish but my English Dad did grow up there (rather complicatedly his three brothers all consider themselves Scottish) and thus we all hold a particular affinity for that magical country and it’s wonderful people. As such we’ve always celebrated Burn’s Night, much to the disgust of many of the English who consider haggis distasteful at best. But for me it’s a quintessential winter dish - rich, hearty and slathered in gravy (yes, I know whisky sauce is traditional but hey I’m not Scottish so I can do what I want) - and something that everyone should experience. The moment I first drank Pilton’s Tamoshanta - a whisky barrel-fermented keeved cider - I thought of Burn’s Night. It carries the classic sumptuousness of a keeved cider: rich, honeyed, sweet apples; but the barrel adds a Scottishness with salt and smoke and oak. The Tamoshanta is more than capable of standing up to the hearty offal and spices of the haggis whilst providing an apple-sweet respite. But more than that, this cider is that perfect example of a cider so well integrated and balanced that it’s like poetry.
Give some of these a try - I know Bonfire Night has passed but fireworks at New Year is a suitable stand-in - or even come up with your own inclusion of cider in the seasonal calendar and let us know whether it helped you reevaluate cider’s place in the seasonality of drinks. Cider has the breadth and the versatility to hold its own in many arenas, but only if we let it.
Where is the best place to buy cider for the Holiday season?
My go-to for most of 2020 has been Scrattings who have curated an exceptional list of ciders from across the UK and beyond including some fantastic fine ciders in 75cl bottles. The brilliant Nicky Kong, of Crown and Kettle and Manchester Cider Club fame, has recently started The Cat In The Glass which features many familiar names from UK cider but also a couple of rarer finds like Aeblerov and Brutes. Ed and James over at Crafty Nectar have built a tremendous range of ciders focusing on bringing accessibility to the world of cider as well as ready made gift packs and a subscription box. Also I have been meaning to place an order with Durham-based Fram Ferment for a while now: their range is great and it is important now more than ever to support small, independent businesses. And speaking of small, independent businesses if you are based in Cardiff, as I am, then you should look no further than Good News Drinks - one of a handful of people in Cardiff showing a true commitment to selling good cider.
