Charlie Harvey

Review — Thistly Cross Gold

Written by Charlie on

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Thistly Cross Gold Whisky Cask Matured Cider

I’m not going to beat about the bush here. I like whisky. And I like cider. So I was intrigued to hear of a cider that was matured with chipped whisky barrels. That's got to be good, right? Well, I got a bottle of the Thistly Cross in my recent Cider Club UK order to see if it was.

Thistly Cross Gold whisky cider, shot of bottle with glass in background. Yum.

First thing to mention is that Scotland isn't exactly renowned for its cider! Clearly the folks at Thistly Cross Cider are on something of a mission to prove that it should be. With Thistly Cross gold, I reckon that the addition of the casks turns what otherwise may have been a relatively innocuous 4 percenter into a proper exciting taste adventure. Or something.

The whisky taste they’ve brought in is much more smoky than I would have thought given that they’ve an EH postcode. But that's the sort of whisky that I adore so they're on to a winner anyhow. This stuff is thoroughly quaffable. There's undertones of ginger beer and peatiness. Lush.

On the cider side, they’ve rightly gone for a simpler cider. Its pretty light, certainly very drinkable but without the complex interactions of sweet bitter and tannin that I’d expect from a full on scrumpy or something like that. The smoothness is a nice counterpoint to the woody undertones of the barrels.

Overall a great experiment, I’m definitely wanting to try some of their other ciders. Slainte Mhor!

2011-10-26 by Charlie Harvey


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