Made by: Cornish Orchards

Made in: Westnorth Manor Farm, Cornwall

Style: Dry

ABV: 5.2%

Carbonation: Lightly Sparkling

Bought: Waitrose

Price: £2.09 (500ml bottle)

Producer’s website: Cornish Orchards

There’s a lot to like about the Cornish Orchards backstory. Andy Atkinson arrived at Westnorth Manor Farm, part of the Duchy of Cornwall Estate, with his herd of dairy cattle in the spring of 1992. At the time, Cornwall Council was trying to ‘save, rejuvenate and replant traditional apple orchards’ and Andy decided to get involved, planting three orchards on the farm. Soon, he had one of the largest collections of Cornish apple varieties in the county, creating the perfect wildlife habitat into the bargain.

After a successful foray into freshly pressed Cornish apple juices, he then decided to have a punt at making cider – and Cornish Orchards cider was born. It’s been so successful he’s ditched the dairy farming and now focuses exclusively on the juice and cider with a small team of around 35.

The company uses freshly pressed apples that have been grown around the South West of England (Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) and are hand-graded and pressed on site.

All of their ciders are from 100% fresh pressed apple juice, although the website does admit to using natural sugars, presumably to back sweeten.

The offering I’m tasting here is the Cornish Orchards Dry Cider which is made with a blend of bittersweet and dessert apples intended to give ‘a long dry finish’.

TASTING NOTES, AFTER FASHION:

A lovely, soft gold in the glass, it’s vibrantly clear and lively.

On the nose it’s a little subdued, not giving much of the game away. A gentle appleyness, crisp and very clean but I couldn’t tempt much more out of it than that.

In the mouth it’s soft and delicate with just a touch of sweetness. It’s dry but not in any sort of ballsy, in your face, deep way like Oliver’s Dry. Just crisp and clean and fresh with very restrained fruit and soft, soft tannins. It has a bit of body to it but still manages to come across as a bit thin and watery for my taste with not enough of anything to make it memorable. The finish is dryish but sort of one-paced.

It’s just a pleasant, unthreatening drop that’s clearly been designed to appeal to a wider audience of cider quaffers looking for something easy on the palate. And there’s nowt wrong with that.

3️⃣/5️⃣