Keith Levenberg
Keith Levenberg
Le Cidre Riehener Epfel 2018
from Switzerland via Fass Selections
The embossed apple on the bottle makes clear that ceci n'est pas un vin. I'm not sure I would have known otherwise though if it was poured out of a brown paper bag. It tastes a little appley but a lot of Champagne tastes a little appley, and this tastes like Champagne more than anything. Which is a little weird considering it's cider, and considering it's 6.8% ABV, which ought to make it feel more like beer than Champagne. But the bubble behavior and style is very Champagne, and you sip it like wine instead of gulping it like beer. Anyway, it's really good. I don't know what ~7 years of aging is supposed to do for a cider but it's bright and lemony-fresh, bracing like a young wine and bone-dry, with just a wee bit of baked apple at the margins if you catch it at just the right angle. A really nice bottle of something different, even if not all that different.
from Switzerland via Fass Selections
The embossed apple on the bottle makes clear that ceci n'est pas un vin. I'm not sure I would have known otherwise though if it was poured out of a brown paper bag. It tastes a little appley but a lot of Champagne tastes a little appley, and this tastes like Champagne more than anything. Which is a little weird considering it's cider, and considering it's 6.8% ABV, which ought to make it feel more like beer than Champagne. But the bubble behavior and style is very Champagne, and you sip it like wine instead of gulping it like beer. Anyway, it's really good. I don't know what ~7 years of aging is supposed to do for a cider but it's bright and lemony-fresh, bracing like a young wine and bone-dry, with just a wee bit of baked apple at the margins if you catch it at just the right angle. A really nice bottle of something different, even if not all that different.