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The Newt hotel launches vintage rosé cyder
In a bid to elevate the category, country house hotel The Newt in Somerset has launched a high-end rosé cyder designed to be appreciated in the same way as wine.
The Newt boasts an apple tree maze within its sprawling gardens containing every apple variety grown in England
Made from 100% apple juice by cellar master Greg Carnell, The Newt claims the artisan pink cyder is the first of its kind in the UK. With an alcohol level of 7.6% and reduced sugar content, the cyder’s candy pink colour comes from the red-fleshed Red Love apple variety from Switzerland.
The West Country cyder is made in a similar way to wine, using the same pressing and cold fermentation processes without added colouring, grapes or sweetener.
The Newt’s Fine Rosé Cyder should be enjoyed like a wine
Housed in a classic Bordeaux wine bottle with a pared-back wine-like white label, the Newt’s Fine Rosé Cyder has gone on sale via The Newt’s online shop.
Cellar master Greg Carnell is hoping people will drink it like they would a wine, in proper glassware and paired with food. He suggests goat’s cheese salad and antipasti as the perfect pairing for the rosé.
According to Carnell, the summery cyder offers “notes of strawberries, hints of summer fruit and natural acidity, which is offset with gentle sweetness”.
Just 2,400 bottles of the inaugural 2019 vintage have been produced, and the cyder carries a wine-like price tag of £11.95 for a 75cl bottle.
In addition to the pink cyder, The Newt’s new range includes a Fine Perry made from fermented pears, and an artisan ‘blanc’ cyder.
The Newt is a big champion of apples and boasts an apple tree maze within its sprawling gardens containing every apple variety grown in England.
It also has 65 acres of orchards planted with 3,000 trees of 70 varieties of cider apple. The Newt’s cyders are inspired by 18th century gentry, who drank their cyder from Champagne flutes.
Keen to shine a light on the unique characteristics of specific apples, The Newt produces a range of single variety cyders.
The property is owned by South African businessman Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos, who bought the Grade I listed 17th century house in 2013.
In adition to The Newt, the pair own and run South African winery Babylonstoren in the Drakenstein Valley, which produces a rosé from Mourvèdre.