Merrydown Dry

Merrydown. I’ve heard all the stories as well. Tramps, people down ‘the park’ - but I think over the years the cider has lost that tag - and that can be only a good thing. The nose has quite a lot throwing itself up in the glass - quite floral in some respects. On the bottle, it says the cider is sharp - and it is to a certain point but fairly smooth at the same time (as it says on the bottle) - but the syrup kicks in and for me it tastes like a UK corner shop cider but in a glass bottle. At 6.8% this just doesn’t have enough to make me ever buy it again - as you want more - more complexity, more depth, more character and more taste - and at 6.8% I’d much rather have something else. This cider is sweet with light fizz and a caramel edge with a hint of vanilla and oak - but most of that is masked by mass production and syrup. I can’t recommended it other than saying if you like a golden cider that’s sweet and 6.8%ABV, then it could be right up your alley.

Although classed as a dry cider this is very much sweet tasting without that sour dry taste, I really enjoyed this and would definitely recommend it as an alternative to Magners fans.

Almost water colour with a hint of lime, clear with moderate fizz. Made from a combination of eating and culinary apples. Cooking apple and wine aroma. Fresh eating apple aroma.

Merrydown Dry (6.8% ABV, 750ml). One of only 2 products from this cidery, it's made from 12 different varieties of culinary and cider apples. Apparently, apart from sulphites there are no additives of any kind, except carbonation. Made with yeast from the Champagne region in France. Clear straw yellow in the glass, sparkling. Weak aroma, almost like a very dry Italian frizzante with lemon sourness, grass, faint sour apples. Light to medium body, moderate carbonation. Slightly musty and dry flavour, with green apples with a hint of sweetness later, lemon, sour white grapes. Drier still towards the finish, with yeast being more prominent, along with lemon and some astringent bitterness. Medium aftertaste, but mostly just mildly bitter and dry. Rather bland, but certainly not terrible dry cider. I've seen some unfair reviews online, like someone describing the aroma as "sweaty socks". Maybe that reviewer had paid a visit to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester just before [Where you can smell WWI trench authentic gunpowder and one-month old socks - a smell so deplorable that you won't be able to UN-smell it for a while]. It's just bland, inoffensive dry cider. 6/10.

Comes in a 750ml screw-top bottle. Pale, greenish-yellow, with an aroma of green apples and a cider vinegar edge. Acidic, sour, slight green apple taste, becoming nondescript and chemical in the aftertaste. No depth or character, and lacking any real cider flavour, though not actively unpleasant.