There’s not much in the aroma but you can smell the sweetness with vague hints of apricot and a faint clementine peel.
The taste is pretty good, not amazing as it’s a bit syrupy - but it’s ok and for the money, isn’t bad.
Like previous years of this cider there’s not a lot of fizz and at times the cider borders on being still.
It’s light in body and not as sharp as previous years and mellows pretty quickly in the mouth. It’s body is fairly rounded with oak and very light tannins delivering a decent length and aftertaste. It had a red apple taste with very light vanilla and a mousse of brown sugar.
But it’s very sweet - really sweet, but a hint of dryness to drag it back on the scale to a medium-sweet cider, but more on the sweet side if that makes sense?
Colour wise, it’s light bronze and golden when held up to the light.
It was interesting to try this two years on from my review of the 2022 version but again it’s lack of fizz lowers its taste, kick and therefore complexity so it ends up being a pretty average medium-sweet (but more sweet) cider.
It doesn’t really have any ‘vintage’ qualities to it and appears and tastes like a poor effort of Weston’s British Vintage (also 7.3%ABV) and my guess is, it’s the reject barrel of that very product (as Weston’s do make some of Lidl’s other efforts).
Wanted to give it a 4, did so at first, but then downgraded it to a 3/5 half way through the bottle.
But, do give it a go and see what you think. Not great. Not bad. It really is in the middle, but disappointing for sure.
Reviewed on 25 Apr 2025
