Sheppy’s Redstreak Cider

Sheppy’s Cider Redstreak Cider gives us the chance to go back to Taunton for another dose of Somerset Cider, this time it’s a single variety cider made with Redstreak apples.

As the name suggests the Sheppy’s Redstreak is single variety cider using the Somerset Redstreak apple. Sheppy’s have over 90 acres (~36 hectares) of orchards some organically certified and all working to improve the local habitats for insect and bird life. Creating hedges and windbreaks not only create safe havens for the critters but this can in turn help grow better apples. So if you have a healthy ecosystem there are good predators to keep the apple eating pests in check. Wild flowers on the orchard floor help bring in the pollinators needed to help fertilise the apple as they blossom – it’s all about the birds and the bees. The oaks and poplars slow the wind reducing the risk of apple laden branches from snapping in storms.

It’s worth protecting these trees as some are over 100 years old. But they are young compared to the age of Sheppy’s Cider. In fact, Sheppy’s is over 200 years old and David Sheppy is the 6th generation Cider maker.

So with 200 years of Cider making knowledge and the Somerset Redstreak, David’s favourite apple, this should be good.

The Nose

It’s all quiet on the nasal front. What little scent there is, is a soft mix of barnyard funk and maybe leather and tobacco.

The Taste

This is where it gets a little bit more exiting. Sheppy’s have made something incredibly juicy in this bottle of Cider. After that riot of sweet juicy apples, peach and passion fruit dies down, the cider dries out leaving behind a similar aftertaste to an orange Soda but with a slightly chalky mouth feel. Texturally the cider has a nice body broken up with a light, but long-lasting carbonation.

Final Thoughts on the Sheppy’s Redstreak Cider

I really like single variety ciders. They give you the opportunity to expose a single apple and everything it can do. 6 generations of local knowledge and cider making skills have certainly added up to make something that is very easy to enjoy. The lower alcohol is an interesting twist as it makes it much more manageable if you were to have a few. The British summer garden parties look out, for this one will be in the esky, (do they have esky’s in England? Or do they just put the bottles out in the sunshine to stay cool?)

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