Made by: Steilhead Cider

Made in: Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire

Style: Dry

ABV: 6%

Carbonation: Lightly Sparkling (Bottle Conditioned)

Bought: Good Spirits Co. Wine & Beer, Glasgow

Price: £3.50 (500ml bottle)

Producer’s website: Steilhead Cider

Steilhead Cider is another of those rarest of things, a Scottish company making proper cider. Based out of Steilhead Cottage in Auldgirth, just north of Dumfries, Max and Penny Nowell press whole apples and use 100% fresh apple juice, naturally fermented using only the yeasts naturally occurring in the apples (which can take up to a year), with no added flavourings, sweeteners or even sulphites. It doesn’t get much purer than that.

According to their website, the goal is west-country style cider, full-flavoured, dry, and tannin-rich. They use the term ‘craft’ on the site but you get the curiously satisfying feeling that the word is used a little grudgingly, perhaps because somebody with an interest in marketing told them craft is all the rage, rather than because they actually see themselves as craft cider makers. They also use the term ‘artisan’, which is perhaps a better description of what they’re all about. Small scale and with a reliance on nature to produce a high quality cider.

It’s also worth highlighting that the website is disarmingly and refreshingly honest – and we like honesty – because it goes into detail about all sorts of things that most producers simply wouldn’t. It explains that the apples used are a mix of locally-sourced culinary apples and true cider-apples, many of them coming from Steilhead’s own 60-tree orchard. But it also explains that these are supplemented with cider-apples sourced from Herefordshire. The reason behind this is that their own apple trees are still quite young but as they evolve and deliver improved yields there will be a shift towards a higher proportion of home-grown fruit.

That’s the sort of openness and honesty that is so rarely found that it deserves some sort of medal.

Steilhead produce a small range of ciders, all named after birds. I’m no ornithologist but I’m assuming the birds that appear on the labels are all local to the area.

Tonight we’re tucking into a Goldfinch.

TASTING NOTES, AFTER A FASHION:

So, before you even get the cap off, it’s clear that the Goldfinch isn’t clear. It’s been barrel-matured for up to a year and then bottle-conditioned to give it the tiniest of zings with a nice carpet of sediment lining the bottom. The liquid is cloudy and very pale yellow with that sort of glorious insipid lifelessness that makes Strongbow drinkers wonder why you drink that dishwater – but tells me that we might be in for something special here.

Get your beak into the glass and it’s equally promising: a rich musty, yeastiness on a layer of crisp apple. No crowd-pleasing here.

After all the foreplay, it’s time to get stuck in – and it definitely doesn’t disappoint. It’s all sour apple at the front and the sourness blossoms in the middle, giving the inside of your cheeks a proper going-over. There’s more life to it than I’d expected with the bottle-conditioning giving it a perky fizz that’s particularly noticeable in the mid-palate. It’s very dry, which is fine for me because the drier the better as far as I’m concerned, and the finish is fragrant with hints of gentle spice.

The only thing that’s really missing for me is perhaps a little complexity, possibly down to the mix of apples used – more true bittersweet cider-apples would have added a bit of depth and a more expansive structure – but it’s an absolute banger for my money. Minimal intervention old-school honest cider.

4️⃣ / 5️⃣