Old Friends, Close Relatives & New Faces
The last ciders and perry of 2021 from seasons gone by have been released with the arrival of its Winter Collection.
The Winter Collection includes the 2019 vintages of its classics from the Home Orchard, Old Man & The Bee and Art of Darkness, the latest perry, this one made with French perry pears, My Perfect Cousin, a follow-up to 2018’s Enter The Dragon, focusing on that prince of cider apples, Dabinett, plus something new from the barrels – Egremont Russet En Barrique 2020, emerging from eight months in an ex-white Burgundy cask.
There’s a little more on each below.
Little Pomona’s fab distributors are taking delivery as we write, so do ask at your regular Little Pomona stockist. Or visit Little Pomona near Bromyard – its Bottle Shop is open every Saturday until 18 December, check website for hours – or online.
Or join us at our 20 November Open Day, where we will be releasing Disco Nouveau 2021 – the first cider from the 2021 harvest, in collaboration with our friends at the Burum Collective.
Find out more about the cider and the day here.
And for those who’d like one of each of the Winter Collection, plus the latest Table Cider, there’s a Winter Six Pack, coming in at £75, including delivery (NFD), plus a set of tasting notes.
THE WINTER COLLECTION
Old Man & The Bee 2019
A cider close to our hearts, this is our annual reflection on the vintage two years' past and how it played out in our home orchard specifically. Dry and still, super aromatic, fleshy and juicy. 7.7% abv
Art of Darkness 2019
Our annual experimentation with extended barrel maturation. In January 2020 we sent a tannic blend of two-thirds Ellis Bitter, one-third Ashton Bitter from 2019 into ten individual ex-spirit casks to develop on the fine lees for nearly 14 months. In the end just five barrels were selected for the final blend, bottled still without additions. 7.2% abv
Pet Nat Poiré 2020
We stored handpicked Longbois, Faucett and Antricotin in approximately equal quantities to let them fully ripen, before milling and macerating for 48 hours.
The end result is a sleek, elegant perry that oozes creamy ripe pear fruit, subtle tannins, gentle sparkle and soft acids which rounds everything out perfectly. Sparkling, dry perry. 6.6% abv
My Perfect Cousin 2019
With its juicy, fresh vitality, My Perfect Cousin is our follow up to 2018’s Enter the Dragon. Once more spotlighting the joy of Dabinett – here making up two-thirds of the blend – although similar in style to its predecessor, this is wonderfully reflective of the cooler 2019 harvest. Sparkling and dry. 7.1% abv
Egremont Russet En Barrique 2020
Egremont Russet is one of the great cider apples but few think of it in that context. We took these beautiful apples, fully ripe from a great growing season, milled and macerated them before pressing and fermenting spontaneously in tank. This has emerged dry and as wine-like as cider can be. 8.4% abv