Putney Mountain Heirloom Cuvee

Brewed by Putney Mountain Winery
Style: Cider
Putney, Vermont USA

Bottle thanks to Cletus (who also sent me their Mountain Mac, which I quite enjoyed). Pours with no head over a clear, burnt golden body. Light alcohol legs. Aroma of apple sauce, light wine notes, tartness, smoked apple wood and lightly metallic. Taste is sweet up front with apple sauce and light astringent spice, followed by a slight tart citrus note finishing with lemon meringue. Tingly carbonation, sort of like some frowned upon Lost Abbey beers (i.e. perfectly acceptable carbonation for the style). I actually enjoyed the complexity of the Mountain Mac a touch more.

Pours a clear gold and has such a lively carbonation that it actually maintains a pretty big head for a few second. Of course, lacking the proteins of beer, that head quickly wisps away, bu tthe carbonation continues to stream heavily up the column of liquid. There’s a slight musty/earthy aroma a bit like oats in the aroma, but that’s under a very strong aroma of an apple that’s gone just past prime crunchy eating stage and has headed a little into the grainy/mushy stage, but hasn’t started to rot yet. The yeasty or whatever smell is a lot like that in champagne. Rolls and a bit of vanilla. Starts out as a bit of a shock compared to what I’m used to in ciders, but it really grows on you.

Pours like sparkling wine, pale yellow, with a lot of carbonation. Aromas are subtle apple, a little citrus, and some yeast. Flavors are apples, sugar, citrus, and amybe a bit of vanilla. A little sweet, but very nicely done overall.

Pours clear with nice carbonation. Taste is of sugar cane, honey and apples. A cider that tends to be more on the sweet side than their other ciders.

750 ml cobalt bottle (points for the gorgeous container). Slightly foggy burnished brass, little fizziness. Welcoming nose of fresh apples, vanilla, sherry, oak. Alcohol quite present in very sweet initial flavor, but this is not a bad thing: complex notes of calvados, cognac, amaretto ... very liqueur-like and strong and warming. Somewhat flowery in the middle, rather full-bodied for a cider, fairly strong alcohol burn all the way through, rather dry finish, light carbonation. Very interesting, perhaps intimidating and too alcoholic for some, but I like it quite a bit...far and away the best of the three Putneys I’ve had, and now I can’t wait for the last two!