Marco Pierre White "The Governor" Cider, made by Westons
I have to admit that I was sceptical about a cider branded with the name of a celebrity chef. I picked the bottle up at a little after 9 AM in my local co-op on a bit of a whim to be honest. But, reading the label I saw that it was produced by Westons who, though clearly on the up, do tend to make pretty lush cider. I think of their Old Rosie scrumpy and even their Organic, which is now called "Wyld Wood" for some unfathomable reason. Its probably something to do with "repositioning the brand" or some such nonsense.
But, as is my wont, I digress. Despite the celeb chef thing, the bottle is simple and the graphic design unpretentious and even understated. The contents, clearly visible through the clear glass are the same sort of hazy straw yellow as Old Rosie, with perhaps a little less cloudiness. Or perhaps cloudiness of a subtly different chaacter. Less grainy sediment perhaps? The fizz is pronounced and the cider fizzes more than you might expect for a West Country tipple, but it setles down to a nice hazy almost stillness by the time I have the picture I’ve just taken of it cropped and colour balanced and FTPed.
My sceptiscism appears to have been unfounded. As I take a sip I’m rewarded by a deeply fruity, slightly mellowed and very well oaked roundness quite unexpected in a cider that packs a mere 4.8 percent. This is full-bodied, spicy cider. It tastes almost mulled — a very different style from many of the other Westons offerings. The aftertaste is all apple pie and just a hint of lemon or maybe orange. It is almost into mulled territory.
The label tells me that it'd be good with bangers (not much use for a vegan), but this is the sort of cider that'd wash down pretty much any decent pub lunch nicely. Its not go quite the lightness to complement a curry or something, but it has enough sharpness to cut through the brown tastes of most English-type food.
When all is said and done, I’m sure that the whole telly chef-cider tie up is just a cynical marketing ploy, but hey, I’m sort of OK with that because the bottom line is this is proper good stuff!
2012-08-05 by Charlie Harvey