Sainsbury Taste The Difference - Sparkling French Cider 4,0%

Brewery: Val De Rance (Les Celliers Associes)
as Sainsburys Taste The Difference 4.0%

Beverage: Medium Dry Sparkling French Cider 4.0% (Bottled)

Style: Cider

Brewery Address:
Val De Rance - Celliers Associes
24 Rue De Dinan,
22690,Pleudihen Sur Rance
France

Brewery Website: http://www.valderance.com/

Comments:
I think I'm gonna cry. This royal throne of kings, this precious orchard set in the silver sea, this blessed plot, this Earth, this septic isle, this realm, this England, produces the very best apples in the world. We have the perfect apple growing climate for the finest ingredients, plus years of experience and tradition, yet the very best cider I've tasted is French. It's smooth, sauve and suffocated cider that's full of complex flavours. Lovingly made from the juice pressed from hand picked Brittany cider apples that is then slow fermented. It's not too harsh and not too sweet. It has a sexy bitter oak & sensual vanilla aftertaste, that mingles with a fresh bouquet of apple blossom, and gets glamourous and amorous with the whole olfactory factory in an orgy of decadence.
IT IS BEAUTIFUL. To quote a famous Anglo/French oxymoron (the best type of moron), it has that certain je nais se quoi.
Félicitations à la France.  C'est magnifique!

Fullers - Golden Pride 8.5%

Brewery: Fullers

Beverage: Golden Pride 8.5% (Bottled)

Style: Barley Wine

Brewery Address:
Fuller, Smith & Turner P.L.C.
The Griffin Brewery
Chiswick Lane South
London
W4 2QB

Brewery Website: http://www.fullers.co.uk/


Comments:
Don’t just take pride, take Golden Pride.
Golden Pride may well have a high abv, but unlike many strong beers it's not a rugby player in a tutu. The flavours are powerfully taste full, yet tastefully subtle and balanced. Its hefty 8.5% alcohol presence isn't just there for numbers, but adds to the spectacular symphony and helps carry those heavyweight flavours. The malts are bold, but are neither imbalanced nor bulging. Those rich shortbread, Garibaldi biscuits and toasted fresh bread notes are smoothed and soothed with the thick cut mature marmalade of Challenger hops and air dried with a gorgeous Northdown hop edge. These brewers really are artists and should be celebrated as such. The Tate gallery should have a Fuller's exhibition.