Did you pick these up locally? I’d love to get my hands on some. The Etienne DuPont cider mentioned in my earlier post was served at “The Hunt.”
yes at binny’s these were from the one in Arlington heights. popping the triple in a few moments
Good, not great.
But… but… but… the label says it is ‘oak matured’. It HAS to be great. 
Thought this was good. A bit thin, but bone dry, with a nice rising washed rind cheesy funk on the finish.
Like the Bordelet sydres…both pear and apple (prefer the pear ones, but can’t find them in the market). And, the cheaper Farnum Hill ciders…particularly the Farmhouse, which is not as painfully dry as their more expensive ones.
Getting into these recently. I have to admit that most of what I’ve had previously are more mainstream and some of the flavored ciders. Mostly terrible in my opinion, but recently, I’ve had some eye opening ones. Caveat - I know very little about cider, but these are all things I’ve had recently that I liked.
From England:
2012 Henney’s - Similar to Brian’s notes on 2010. Dry with distinct apple, but great earthy, funky notes. Some barnyard type flavors but not bretty. Really, really nice
Oliver’s Cider - Totally still and dry, but with more funk than the Henney’s. Leather, some low level brown spice (but not in a sweet way). Very tannic. I prefer this to the Henney’s but thought both were very good.
From the NW:
Bull Run Cider Powerhouse Dry - Made from a mix of heirlooms and mixed bittersweets. Tons of vanilla and butter, maybe a tad high since it over powers the fruit a bit, but finishes dry with good acidity
Wandering Aegnus Ashmeade’s Kernel - Recommended to me when I told people I like dry, high acid cider. Super high acidity with a some what white winey, vinous quality to the fruit. Of the US ciders I’ve had so far, this is by far my favorite
On deck for soon: Sea Cider’s English style and another single apple variety from Wandering Aegnus (can’t remember which). Trying to track down some EZ Orchards as well. Any other recommendations for dry English or French styles (since I’m told that’s what I like)?
2011 Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouché Brut de Normandie
We drank this right out of the fridge and it seemed average. When it hit around 60F it really popped. Shy aromatics turned to the real funk that I expected and the tannins came live which really helped elevate the complexity.
I’m a big fan of Etienne DuPont ciders.
I bought two or three different Dupont ones from our last trip to Chicago, as well as some guaranteed superfunk French Basque ciders.
Rachel,
The Henry Westons is worth trying. I do prefer the Henneys, but you can do a lot worse than the Westons. It should be easy to find; if you can’t, let me know and I’ll send some your way (along with whatever else you or Z may want to try from down here).
Brian, I’ll look for Weston’s. Portland has a cider pub (http://bushwhackercider.com) that has a pretty extensive bottle list, but we haven’t been over there yet. I don’t see it on their list, but I don’t know how up to date their online list is.
Also just tried the Petritegi Basque cider and while I loved the funk and brett, the acetic acid was a bit much. It comes in a 750ml, but it’s hard to drink more than a glass of it at a time. Being new to Basque cider I don’t know if the acetic acid level in this one was typical or partly a result of poor storage.
You hit it on likely poor storage. I wouldn’t leave Basque Cider out of a fridge & tons of places leave ciders on shelves like they are bottles of wine.
From the list at the cider bar, Finn River, Alpenfire, Wandering Aengus & Rev Nats are all PNW cideries that are delivering exciting stuff.
Rachel - most of those hard ciders from the Basque and Asturian regions of Northern Spain are produced “au natural” and need to be poured from over your head to “wake up” the cider - it gets milky and fizzy when you wake it up and takes that “acid” bite out of the taste - a huge, huge difference -
See here -
I can appreciate the long pour and aeration, but this was an unrefrigerated bottle on a shelf at a local bottle shop. Because of the acid level, we kept it open in the fridge for a couple of days after, so it did get some oxygen that way as well. The acetic acid level was still super high - higher than any Flanders red ale that I’ve had.
I know they’re supposed to be acidic, but this seemed over the top. And I like a lot of sour beers so this wasn’t just an aversion to sourness. Because this was obviously a natural sidra (it had a lot of sediment), my guess is the poor storage might have boosted the acetic acid (which I think is what Anthony was saying poor storage could do).
But I will try more from a better source and then report back. I hope I can pour as gracefully as in the picture.
In the meantime, I will say that the Sea Cider Wild English from BC was pretty amazing.
A great article in the Chicago Tribune on the explosion of ciders - and the guy in the picture is grabbing one of my Ciders that I import - how cool is that?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-cider-growth-0708-biz-20140708,0,5653284.story
Not a Tribune digital subscriber, can’t read it.