Croncel, Boskoop and Trier Weinapfel are old apple varieties quite often used to make single-varietals ciders in Germany. These apple varieties were also used by Obstbau Ciampa from Florstadt, Hessen made up by Angelo and Martin for their ciders. I thought it would be interesting to directly compare three different ciders made by the same cider makers, hence this post.
Below you will find an overview of three ciders that I’m going to review today.
| Name | Vintage | Description | ABV |
| Croncel 2022 | 2022 | SV Cider from Croncel | 6.5% |
| Boskoop 2022 | 2022 | SV Cider from Boskoop | 6.5% |
| Trierer Weinapfel 2022 | 2022 | SV Cider from Trierer Weinapfel | 5.5% |
Tasting notes:
| Name | Appearance | Aroma/Nose | Taste | Overall |
| Croncel 2022 | pale amber, cloudy, no carbonation, no foam, medium body | weak with notes of green apple, fresh apple skin | slightly sweet, low acidity of lemon, high astringency, green apple, pepper, low bitterness, yellow apple. Finishes with a hint of ripe banana. | Taste wise, it is nicely balanced, with good level of sweetness and acidity. It is alo rich in terms og flavours. Lots is happening. But the nose is rather weak and I’m not getting a lot of flavours. 4.5/6 |
| Boskoop 2022 | pale amber, cloudy, no carbonation, no foam, medium body | not really strong. Notes of tannic apple, ripe yellow apple. | touch of sweetness, medium acidity of lemon, smokiness, lemon, peach, yellow apple, low bitterness, lemon peel, orange peel. low astringency. | Nicely citrusy with a touch of sweetness. Long-lasting taste with depth. Again, the nose is weak and I’m not getting much. Nice acidity with astringency. .4.5/6 |
| Trierer Weinapfel 2022 | pale amber, cloudy, no carbonation, no foam, medium body | moderately strong with notes of apple stem and yellow apple. | it starts slightly sweet with a moderate acidity of lemon and a touch of vinegar, notes of yellow apple, lemon and ripe pear. | Again, really nicely balanced sweetness and acidity. High astringency. The taste is long-lasting. Only moderately strong nose with limited variety of aromas. And, some volatile acidity, which I don’t think was planned. 4/6 |
Summary: it was a really interesting experience to compare three different ciders all made from three various apple varieties. Each of them had it’s characteristic taste profile. Trierer Weinapfel and Boskoop were nicely citrusy, while Croncels was actually surprisingly tannic. Only this year I tried three singlevarietals ciders made with Croncels and none of them was that tannic as this one. What all of these ciders had in common was a very weak nose. All of them could be more aromatic so in that sense I found all of them dissapointing or better said below my expectations. The palate, however, of all three were long-lasting with plenty of lovely flavours. Interestingly, I wouldn’t describe the cider style of Obstbau Ciampa German at all as it rather fits the description of a West Country Cider from the UK. Even the colour of all ciders matches English cider. Only the level of acidity was higher than in English cider but I would say it in this case is a complement as this is what made these ciders nicely balanced. They all had a very good sugar/acidity ratio. Taste-wise, they deserve a score higher than 5 but due to a really weak nose and poor variety of aromas on the nose, I can’t give more than 4.5. Which was my favourite? It was the Obstbau Ciampa Boskoop. I thought it was refreshing and pleasantly citrusy with just a touch of acidity. Angelo and Martin, you need to work on the aromas of your ciders, then they will be absolutely perfect. I would be happy to drink all of them again.
Availability: for now, only directly from Obstbau Ciampa
Price: Angelo and Martin provided me with a sample.
Cider Explorer 
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