Bjork

Comes in a 750 ml bottle, with an additional porcelain flip-top cork seal, for after removing the crown cork, with a rather attractive Swedish flag design on the stopper. Made from Orange Pippin apples, wild-fermented, and macerated with birch leaves for a month, before a 6 month maturation in oak casks. Rich copper colour, with an unusual and complex aroma of ripe fruit, rose petals, tannic leaves, and a hint of wax and tar. Floral and fruit flavours combine with strongly astringent and tannic tones of plant tars, tobacco, bitter tea leaves, and wood, intensifying as the aftertaste develops, and culminating in a warm finish, with qualities similar to French polish. Highly complex, and quite individual, with the birch leaves dominating the flavour profile, but not disguising the fragrant apple cider base. A warming, fireside cider, ideal for this stormy Scottish evening. This reminds me quite a bit of the Sampford Courtney ciders.