Review of Loic Raison 1923 Brut, a French cidre. Its my first time trying this one, although I’ve tried a number of other French ciders.
Cider: Brut
Cidery: Loic Raison
Cidery Location: Brittany France
ABV: 4.5%
How Supplied: 750ml corked & caged bottles
Style: French cidre
Availability: wide release
Description: I couldn’t find one. Note that Brut simply means dry (although at 5 grams of sugar per 8oz this isn’t completely dry).
Price: $10.49
Where Bought: Total Wine
Where Drank: home
How Found: Browsing. This is one of the major French cidre brands and commonly available in the U.S.
First Impression: Deep orange amber. Very low carbonation. Smells of bittersweet apple juice.
Tasting Notes: On the sweeter side of semi-dry. Medium bodied. Low tartness. Low acidity. Hints of tannins. No bitterness, sourness, or funk. Simple flavor notes, just apple juice and yeast. Quick finish. High apple flavor. High sessionability. Low to moderate flavor intensity. Low complexity.
My Opinion: This was nice and definitely easy to drink, but it tasted flat (like it used to have higher carbonation) and overly juice-like. I’d rather pay half as much and pick up some Dan Armor at Trader Joe’s, or better yet, as it is in single serve bottles, Celt.
Most Similar to: Dan Armor and Celt, which are also both Brittany France cidre varieties. They have a very similar flavor profile to Loic Raison, but a higher carbonation and lower cost.
Closing Notes: I’m a fan of Brittany more than Normandy France cidres, Brittany cidres are typically apple & yeast forward, clean (no funk or sourness), and have a higher carbonation level.
Have you tried French cidre? What did you think?
Cider Says 
Brut means less than 2.8% residual sugar for French ciders. 5 grams of sugar per 240 milliliters is 2.08% residual sugar. That’s just into the Medium-Sweet range as far as GLINTCAP goes. According to Marc Gleonec in Comment lire une étiquette de cidre Breton, Extra Brut is sometimes used for ciders below 1.4% residual sugar.
I recently had the Dan Armor for the first time in almost 2 years. It was drier than I remembered it. The label states 6 grams of sugar per 240 milliliters, which is 2.5% residual sugar. As you say, the Dan Armor is a very good value.
As far as Breton ciders being clean, that may be true of the brands available in the US. But at Marc’s Franklin County CiderDays tasting in 2015, many of the brands not yet available in the US were anything but clean!
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Eric – Thanks for the info! I’d love to go to France (and England) and get to try the typical ciders there. As you confirmed, I expect the ciders that get imported here are the more commercial (large production) and geared for the general population.
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