Pours an attractive deep gold - um, clear apple juice color - with about a half inch of fizzy white foam. Very effervescent. Boils down (ok, boils isn’t the correct term, but you get the idea) to a thin layer of foam - with something of a thicker ring of suds at the sides of my Samuel Smith half-sized no-nick taster glass? Mild apple juice (as opposed to apple cider) aroma. Sweet apple and puckering tart apple at the same time. They compete for prominence, settle for a draw, and leave the audience (me) very content. Finishes both dry (on the tongue) and sweet (everywhere else). How can that be? This is without question an apple champagne. And yet it is medium bodied - just when you expect it to turn light. After half a glass, it remains very carbonated, even though the head is now completely gone. Minutes after my last sip, the dryness on my tongue remains. All traces of sweetness are replaced by a mild spicy/herbal taste. Chamomile maybe? I think so. Wait - make that subtle dry black pepper, with some chamomile.

2002 bottle. Head is initially small, fizzy, white, fully diminishing. Body is clear light amber. Aroma is notes of apple, oak, moss, grass, flowers, hints of oregano and honey. Flavor is moderately sweet, moderately acidic. Finish is lightly sweet, moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Medium body, watery/velvety texture, fizzy carbonation, lightly astringent. More carbonation, slightly drier, and more balanced and restrained in the aroma(and revealing more terroir) than the Brut Tendre, this is about as close to true (French) Champagne as I’ve had in the cider world (minus the ubiquitous bread dough note and the alcohol level common to Champagne). Perfect flavor balance, subtle complex aromas, and exceptionally clean...not a knock-you-over cider like Dupont makes, but easily the most elegant cider I’ve had to date. Absolutely outstanding, but if you don’t like wine or Champagne you will likely not appreciate this all too much.

A nice clear cider with bazillions of little bubbles. a pale caidery aroma that dips into a fizzy mouthfeel. the taste fades quickly, but it's still pretty good.

2003 bottle via marcus. The cider pours to a dark orange body with lots of visible carbonation that slowly creeps up through what is likely a viscous liquid. A thin white head forms. The aroma is, like Ernest states, mossy. Some dry woodyness. Not a bunch of apples. Where are the apples? Perhaps some light cassia. The flavor is pretty complex. Apples, light cassia, sweet concentrate. The palate is smooth, not overly carbonated, sticky at times.

2005 vintage. Pours a clear, medium golden body. Ultra-fine carbonation bubbles cascade slowly into a fizzy, off-white pool at the head of the glass. The aroma comes off as a beautifully spiced reduction of apples, very reminiscent of a baked apple pie. The nose also shows a good amount of wild mustiness that I mistook for oak at first. High residual sugar accounts for a very sweet, concentrated apple flavor and somewhat cloying mouthfeel. The wild must comes through strongly again, as does a touch of cinnamon. A decent amount of acidity tries to peek through, but is alas enveloped by the sweetness. This is a fun, easy drinking little cider that won’t knock your socks off, but will satisfy nonetheless.