Cidre Dupont Réserve

Brewed by Domaine Familial Louis Dupont
Style: Cider
Victot-Pontfol, France

Courtesy of Styles

Bottle: The aroma is a combination of sweet and faintly tart apples with a hint of whiskey and faint spices. It pours a hazy gold with some large sediment and a small fizzy white head. The flavor starts much like the aroma with sweet and faint tart apples. It finishes with a hint of spiciness and alcohol with an increased tartness.

2004 Bottle: Pours a hazy gold with a white head. Aroma, apples, fruits, and some cinnamon. Flavor, light apple notes, cinnamon, sugary. This was pretty good.

750ml bottle, 2005 release. Rich, sumptuous apple aroma, also features hints of honeyish sweetness, sulfur, brett (or something similar) barnyard and fruity tartness. Cloudy golden amber color, mostly lasting thin head, unfiltered. Velvety apple flavor, sweet and rich, yet light, very flavorful. Smooth mouthfeel, effervescence is gentle. Finishes strong and satisfying. Pretty good stuff, this is about the pinnacle of craft ciders by far in my limited experience. Just fits the profile I had in my head of what good cider could be.

vintage 2004. Huge apple aroma, red apples, with hints of sour apple skins. Pours amber with no visible sign of carbonation. Taste is all apples, enough carbonation to tickle the tongue. Good apple flavor, red apples again with hints of apple skins and some hints of oaky vanilla flavors. Very enjoyable to drink.

The 5th and last cider in our flight at Indra’s Mead, Cider and Sake Tasting 8/31/07. 2004 harvest aged in Calvados until 2005. Pours a cloudy gold with a few floaties and a thin white head that clings to the edges of the glass. Light brett-like funkiness on the nose with nice sweet apples and a hint of woodiness. Medium-bodied and slick, it finishes quite tart and dry. The flavor is a beautiful, round, vinous apple with calvados/woody notes. This was hands-down the best cider of the evening, and IMHO it was the best locally-available beverage of the evening.

Bottle bought at Systembolaget, Göteborg, Sweden. Abv 7.5 % according to the label. Cloudy orange golden with a small and short head. Creamy apple aroma with some woody notes and a pungent alcohol bite. Light to medium bodied with a lively sparkling mouthfeel. Quite dry with a gentle bitterness.

Murky yellow golden. Tart, musty, tannic, and oak aromas. There was some disscussion of brett in this. I can certainly pick up the calvados. Sweet apple flavors. Well rounded palate with a dry finish. This is a very nice drink.

Fifth cider of the night at the Indra - Cider, Sake and Mead tasting 8/31/07. Pour is very bubbly, hazy orange yellow. Aroma of funk, barnyard and almost bret wildness. Taste is initially quite sour, middle is sweet full body, than mellows out to a nice crisp sourness in the finish. Most certainly the best of the ciders we sampled.