Old Rosie at the Turf Tavern, Oxford
I’m a firm believer in contextualising. So, here’s the back story. We’d been to watch a Disney film (no, really!) after a couple of beers in the Three Goats Heads and decided to go for a pint at the Turf. The Turf Tavern is a typically Oxford establishments, full of posh kids in rugby tops and the occasional tourist drinking lovely, if expensive real ale. The sort of place they film episodes of Morse. Well, they were also one of the first Oxford pubs to serve Old Rosie. So I had a pint.Old Rosie is one of those proper scrumpyish ciders; completely evil at breaking one’s sobriety but oh my what a drink. Its a good attempt to convey the vibe and importantly the effects of a West Country farmhouse scrumpy. It will make you wobble if you have more than a pint. I don’t know why this is. I drink a fair amount of decently strong cider — Westons Organic comes in at a decent 6.5%, for example. There is just something about Rosie.
What else can we say about Old Rosie its a delightful straw colour, very much on the still side and delightfully dry. Its maybe a tad on the watery side, with a nice astringency and a cheeky bit of a burn. A bit like the Sheppy’s Rosie feels very drinkable, so you want to be a bit careful. Or maybe you don’t. Who am I to judge your desires? What I’m saying in a characteristically verbose manner is that its stronger than it taste, tipping the scales at 7.3%.
Well, dear readers, after a pint we went and saw some Ska and danced the night away drinking something far more unfortunate.
2011-02-07 by Charlie Harvey