La Face Cachée de la Pomme Neige Ice Cider

Brewed by La Face Cachée de la Pomme
Style: Ice Cider
Hemmingford, Canada

I am not often left at a loss, this is indeed one of those moments. Aroma is fully on apples, but brings to mind some of Germany’s finest Riseling Eiswines. Some apple-pie spice flavors peek through. Sweetness is balanced perfectly with the acidity. AMAZING!!!!

Bottle. A golden cider with a small white head. The aroma is of apples, alcohol and spices. The taste is light acid and sweet sour apples, alcohol and spices. Medium to full body with a sweet finish.

Deep golden body; Huge incredibly concentrated nose, really like condensed cider, but then it has a strange touch of non perfumed lotion, and not fresh apples, not bad but strange; Deep medium complex body, super sweet, oily soft, sharp present sourness; The sourness evolves in a very long finish, still super sweet, with ripe apple aromas, perfumed, great.

Bottle at Københavnske Øldage 2007. Clear cobber - no head. Very smooth. High sweetness, concentrated apple juice, honey. A bit as powerfull as unfiltrated coldpressed applejuice. Very nice.

bottle (200ml, clear). Via trade with mouton_noire. Rating #2200. "Récolte 2005." Pours oily-looking clear refractive brass-gold, no head, no bubbles, but from what I know of ice wines, this is exactly as it should be. The aroma is initially mild (needed to warm), eventually it opened to reveal a complex combination of sweet ripe apple, a little brown sugar, some bone-dry musty white wine and a hint of tartness. Taste - just wow. Who would ever drink ice wine again after this? Smooth, silky, real-apple, sweet but not cloying, a hint of light spice hovering in the background, warming but muted alcohol, no aftertaste (other than apple), no burn - man that’s a fine thing. Silky, sticky body - neither thick nor watery, just perfect, really, not carbonated but that’s not the point here, it just sits on the tongue and you mourn it’s passing and realize why it’s so expensive. Stunning.

Bottle from puzzl. Pours clear, pale and still. The aroma is heavily floral, clover, apples and a honey like sweetness. The flavor is uber concentrated apple sweetness, honey, clover and just a touch of tartness on the finish. Full, sticky body is very dense and coating. Nice sipper. It’s not the French style cider that I usually like, but this is really nice for what it is.

5/4/07. Poured out of 200 mL bottle, obtained in a trade with Olivier_MTL on RateBeer 12/3/05. 2005 Vintage. Lovely, luminescent, crystalline golden color, completely still (as expected) and with several silky viscous legs on the sides of the glass. Aroma is of tart green apples, a little bit of a Jolly Rancher fakeness to it but mostly just bright, zippy crisp sour apple. There’s also a touch of alcohol burn in the nose that either dissipates quickly through evaporation or fades into the apple tartness and tickles my nose into submission. I really can’t tell exactly, but I think there’s a little of both going on. The beautiful thing about this stuff is how well-integrated all of the flavors are, and at 12% ABV the alcohol is one of the primary among them. The taste captures a lot of the same apple candy and fresh juice with some mead-like honey character, then a very soft touch of earthiness and apple skin down the finish. Medium length on the finish with a slightly sticky, sappy residue left on the lips. Slick medium body with a fuzzy burn down the throat and gentle warmth on the sides of the mouth. It may be funny to say with such a sweetly fruity concoction, but if the finish were a bit drier, this stuff would be even more lovely. A real treat for a grown-up juice lover looking for a new indulgence.

This cider was a nice surprise gift in by my Secret Santa...interestingly on my beer hiatus this got lost in the mix and I re-discovered it tonight. This pours an orangey slight yellow mix with a thin soapy head that is whisked quickly away. Aroma is apples, tartness, alcohol, grapey-goodnesses thereof, some hints of honey and mahogany. WOW, no wonder this runs so much a bottle...that was perhaps the smoothest 12% ABV I have EVER experienced. Tart and extremely crisp, flavors are long developing with a bittering dew drop ending. Thick and syrupy with just the slightest warming of alcohol, no carbonation necessary. Oh god this is nice. Apples suddenly dont suck anymore. Finish is extremely crisp, and chewy....mmmmmmmm. Bottle is dated 2002.