We've gone rogue! This week we've got a cider rather than beer just to mix things up a bit, and it's a goody. The Nightingale family has been farming fruit at Gibbet Oak Farm in Tenterden since 1984, and in Kent for over 70 years, so they know what they're doing. They use only local apple varieties in their cider, hand-picked from their orchards and wild-fermented.
Wild Disco cider is named after the Discovery apples it's made from—a dessert apple that's sweet but with plenty of acidity, which lends itself very well to apple juice and cider! The cider is almost slightly sulphurous on the nose, and quite farmhouse-y, but on the palate it's delicate and clean, just pure fresh red apples. It's gently sparkling and semi sweet, with a slightly dry finish that's more like that of a dry white wine than a dry cider, with no astringency or tannins. It's zingy and refreshing, and very, very easy to drink. I think it would be particularly great at a picnic or festival, but for now I'll just have to look wistfully at the garden and hope for a sunnier September.
Poppy Simon
