I wished to make consolation meals at dwelling this weekend. We’ve had loads of exhausting stuff happening recently, and the weekend lastly gave me sufficient respiratory room to cook dinner about it. So I made vegetarian lasagna. Each lasagna I’ve ever made is vegetarian, however I regarded for methods to pack extra greens in with out shedding the dish’s richness and indulgence. It’s alleged to be an excellent savory pile of cheese and noodles smothered in wealthy tomato sauce! And as quickly because the craving hit, I knew it could be a fantastic likelihood to select an enormous cider with intense flavors as an accompaniment. That’s why this week’s cider assessment is of Deep Roots Laborious Cider’s Double Barrel Reserve.
I got here throughout the Double Barrel Reserve after I had the pleasure of judging cider for the PA Farm Present this previous December. Deep Roots Laborious Cider involves us from Sugar Run, Pennsylvania. The cidery was based by Tim Wells in 2015, and that is the primary time I’ve managed to snag a bottle for myself. Getting Pennsylvania exterior of state remains to be no simple feat, people! That’s why that is my first Deep Roots assessment.
I like to recommend visiting the cidery on-line: https://www.deeprootshardcider.com/
Right here’s Deep Roots’ official description for the Double Barrel Reserve.
Double up on what makes our Barrel Reserve nice! This bourbon-barrel-aged exhausting cider begins with our unique Northern Spy exhausting cider aged for a full yr in a double-oaked-bourbon barrel. It has notes of vanilla, caramel, and oak with a silky easy end.
This small-batch cider sells out quick!
9.9% ABV
Look: Sunny yellow, few seen bubbles, sensible
What a beautiful cider. It doesn’t have the haze that a number of barrel-aged ciders show. As a substitute I can see just a few bubbles within the cider fairly clearly. The Double Barrel Reserve is a sunny pastel yellow. Perhaps it’s simply my wishful pondering, however the coloration jogs my memory of spring sunshine.
Aromas: vanilla, caramel, smoke, wooden, barrel
The Double Barrel Reserve smells amazingly of vanilla and barrel. The aromas are simply so vivid and intense. I additionally get plentiful aromas of caramel, salt, and smoke. The cider hints at woody and balsam notes.
Sweetness/dryness: Candy
It is a candy cider. It’s an unapologetic dessert with loads of complexity to the sweetness.
Flavors and ingesting expertise: Petillant, full physique, buttery, barrel, woody
Deep Roots convey us a cider that’s each petillant and candy. I don’t essentially affiliate these two qualities collectively, however the emphatic barrel focus melds the 2. What I get is a wealthy buttery cider that has dessert ranges of sweetness on the mid-palate and a twinge of a bitter trace on the end. The cider has tons of barrel character and a full physique.
The Double Barrel Reserve cider carries its hefty alcohol-by-volume degree properly and the robust flavors can stand as much as a dish like lasagna. In an ideal world, I’d like to see all of that enjoyable barrel character countered balanced with extra fruit and acid, however it’s exhausting to get all the things in a single cider. My co-taster commented that the Double Barrel Reserve tasted intriguingly like a tree or a pine cone with only one sharp trace of apple.
It was a deal with to make, pair, and revel in my lasagna with this wealthy super-barrely cider. Cheers!
