Judge’s Review: 92 Rating – Kingston Black by Snow Capped Cider

English Cider | Year-Round | USA

By Brian Eichhorn

Judges Rating: 92
Aroma: 23
Appearance: 6
Flavor: 37
Mouthfeel: 9
Overall Impression: 17

Kingston Black by Snow Capped Cider is being evaluated as a C1B, English Cider, per the 2015 BJCP Cider guidelines.
The nose on this is fantastic. Great apple skin and perfumy notes, green fruit and pleasant white wine aromatics. There’s a freshness, but also an austerity that I really appreciate in the nose here. Pours a burnished gold with brilliant clarity and lazy sets of bubbles suggesting the lower end of sparkling or even petillant. At the taste, there is a lot of clean alcohol here. The fruit oddly doesn’t give off any bruised qualities, which I quite appreciate. This is nearly bone dry, but there’s some texture and tannin that gives it structure. The perfumy apple persists into the finish. The fruit character is beautiful, just ripe and just the right amount of acid here to round it off. The alcohol is pretty aggressive and there’s a slight smoky phenol that adds some extra complexity. This is great stuff and the only qualm I have is with the alcohol, which at 8.5% ABV is quite high. It’s interesting, as it has a few qualities that feel new world-y, but it also has this distinct English thing going on that makes it unusual and intriguing.