I was Crushed.

After a long day of meetings and planning, I looked forward to a nice bottle of cider with my Blue eyed cod. So off to Kemenys I went and picked a bottle of Monteith's Crushed Apple Cider from New Zealand. Monteith's are new into the Australian market and launched with their beers a couple of years ago.

My first impressions of Monteith's were of a cheap beer. The cartons would regularly fall apart due to cheap cardboard and lack of glue. The packaging was and still is pretty average. The cider label looks like it was designed in the 1970's.

The cider itself is 4.5% in alcohol and is really no better that the packaging. It is pale in colour and pale it taste. It has a touch of sweetness, but there is no crisp finish. No length of flavour.

Apples! 5 out of 10.

Blue eyed cod with carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin mash and steamed brocoli and green beans 10 out of 10.

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder

The Chevalier family, owners of Aspall Cyders are now on there 8th generation of cider makers or, as they call it cyder.

Aspall is a very small village (population of 30) in Suffolk, England just north of Ipswich .................. south of Norwich! Still none the wiser? OK if you look at a map of the England it is in the middle of that lump of land that hangs of the edge of east England just above London. It was first recorded as a village in 1078 by William the Conqueror.

Aspall Hall, the family home was first purchased in 1702 and has a moat! Nice eh!

Their website promises to tell us why they still use the olde worlde spelling of Cyder, however, I could not find their explanation. Nor, their connection to the FA Cup or craters on the moon. Hmmm, not sure what that is all about!

So, to the cider, or cyder. I bought it in Kemenys on Bondi Road, yes I am here in sunny, well actually wet Bondi, Sydney. It is a grey, wet Saturday morning. It is imported by Little World Beverages, who are part of the growing Little Creatures empire.

I am convinced that cider is a great match to sushi and sushimi. The best Japanesse in Sydney has to be Ten Japanesse on Bondi Road. I always feel my order has been "Lost in translation", however, every time it turns up it is fantastic. Beautiful vibrant coloured salmon and tuna that just melt in the mouth.

Aspall Draught Cyder, does tick all the boxes. It is crisp and clean. It has a bigger mouthfeel than the Punt Road and this can be expected as it is slightly darker in colour. The thing that I was not so keen on was the sweetness of the cyder. Now it is certainly not a sweet cider, compared to those sickly sweet commercial styles, however, it is there. Am i getting my y's and i's mixed up? Overall, a good cider in beautiful packaging.

Aspall ciders are, as the label says multi award winners. Their Dry Premier Cru Cider picked up "Best Cider in the World" by Beers of the World Magazine in 2008. No mean feat. I am not sure if it is available over here in Australia.

However, I have to say I prefered the Punt Road cider I had last week, especially the Pear Cider.

So how does it score out of 10?

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder - 8 apples.

Cider, my earliest memories and Punt Road Ciders

Every Sunday lunchtime my Dad would go over to the local village club, Backwell Village Club in what is now North Somerset. When I was a small kid it was plain old Somerset. Anyway, he would always come back with two big bottles of Williams cider. They were big brown bottles that looked like the old Corona Lemonade bottles that the milkman used to deliver. Corona was lemonade that was made in Wales, well before the stuff that calls itself beer came along. As a young teenager we were always allowed a glass of this golden brown fizzy drink with our Sunday dinner, traditionally we always ate at 6pm on a Sunday. The sweeter version was the favourite. This was my introduction to cider, thanks Dad.

We lived on the side of a valley and across the valley we could see Coates Cider Factory, which at it's height was the second largest cider producer in the world. It closed in 1975, oh, am I showing my age.

Here is a great old Pathe News film clip from the 1960's click here introducing the Wurzels who are West Country cider legends. You will be hearing more from The Wurzels.

I will tell you more of my life with cider in future blogs.

And so to my first review on Landlord, cider I up, and it goes to an Australian winery!

Punt Road Winery from the Yarra Valley in Victoria. Check them out Punt Road Wines.

Cider is about to take off in Australia. I spent many, many years as a liquor retailer in Sydney, Australia and all we ever sold was Bulmers Sweet, Dry or Draught. Now there are plenty of domestic and imported ciders to choose from. Many wineries have jumped on the micro brewery craze and others are about to ride the cider wave that is about to happen.

Punt Road make two ciders, both new products on the market in 2010

Punt Road Apple Cider.

At 5.5% alcohol this is a medium strength cider made from apples sourced from the Napoleone family orchards in the Yarra Valley. Three varieties of apples are used to make this well balanced crisp dry cider. It is very pale in colour and has a wonderful sparkle. It looks dry and crisp, and it is. It was been made by the award winning wine making team at Punt Road using Champagne yeasts. It is the perfect cider for a hot summers day. I found it very refreshing.

Pear Cider

A real revelation, I grew up with Pear cider being called Perry. Traditionally, perry was always at least semi-sweet, usually sweet. This is again, very pale in colour and and a low 4.5% alcohol. Pears are full of malic acid, that is the crisp acid found in Granny Smiths apples, this leads to a crisp acidic wine with hints of citrus flavours. This cider is delicious, unfortuately, only 800 cases have been made. Be quick!

Now, a great food match, sushi and sashimi. The light delicate flavours of these Japanesse dishes was the absolutely perfect match for the crisp light flavours of these ciders.

Sushi and cider, it works.

Both ciders come in 4-packs and rrp is $18.00.

To find out where to by these beauties click on the winery link above. Be quick!

How do they score out of 10.

Punt Road Apple Cider - 8.5 apples.

Punt Road Pear Cider - 9 pears.

Check out my wine blog at: http://freerunwineevents.blogspot.com/