Lobo Royale

This is LOBO Cider from Lenswood in South Australia. The Lobo Royale Cider continues the theme of the wolf bottle labels. This member of the pack is a bottle conditioned, cloudy cider. Is this small batch, hand crafted cider, the top dog?

LOBO call this a partially keeved cider with “More French in style – along the lines of a cider bouche, but not quite.” So to translate that, a keeved cider is one that has been fermented with the juice and the pulp together in the same vat. When the process is pushed to its’ full potential the pulp forms a cap on top. Underneath, the fermentation is arrested before all the sugars have been converted to alcohol resulting in a sweeter drink. It also makes the cider crystal clear. LOBO’s Royale on the other hand is probably the cloudiest cider I’ve seen.  This must be the result of fermenting with the pulp and not pushing for the full keeve.

The Royale is no cheeseburger,

As the label says “Noble cider apple in this handcrafted blend, with our popular LOBO Cider base. Intense apple flavours, layers of complexity, Cloudy, a balanced sweetness, unfiltered, altogether delicious.”

The Nose

You don’t have to stick your nose deep into the flute glass to get a whiff of the baked apple and brown sugar. However, if you do go deep there are a few earthly undertones in the Lobo Royale.

The Taste

This is so juicy; it ventures into sparking apple juice territory.

You would think that the juicy sweetness would leave a sticky taste behind, but LOBO has balanced it out with a fair amount of acid and a hint of tannin. Even still it hangs around for long enough to explain itself and there is a lot to explain. The tannins that develop as your glass warms are contributed by the cider apples while the Granny Smiths provide their trademark acidic tang.

Even if you roll the bottle there will be plenty of sediment, mostly lees. Being so cloudy some of that sediment must be settled particles. It’s probably worth leaving the dregs in the bottle. There is more than enough texture in the rest of the bottle.

Final Thoughts on the Lobo Royale

LOBO Royale is instantly recognizable with its dark and cloudy colour. It’s cloudiness directly translates into a creamy mouth feel. The Royale is begging matched with a milky or soft cheese like bocconcini or brie. Something about the LOBO’s sweetness and texture is a real winner with a ball of Buffalo mozzarella.

The Royale look and feel is very different to many of the others. Don’t let that put you off. It’s super juicy, people new to cider will appreciate that. While seasoned cider drinkers will find it complex enough to check if there is a enough left in the bottle for a second glass.

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