The 2011 Bonny Doon Querry Cider is a blend of 58% Pear, 33% Apple (both sourced in California) and 9% Quince (Oregon). Bonny Doon uses several varieties of pear and apple to get the preferred flavor profile. The Querry Cider undergoes 2 fermentations, so it has a little bit of spritz. The apples and the pears are pressed to get their nectar, but quince does not have much juice. The quince is reduced to pulp and placed into a sack and then tossed into the fermenting apple and pear juice to seep its flavors into the blend. The Querry Cider is not a British style cider, so it will be different from WoodChuck or Magners cider you normally see on local store shelves. Plus you don’t ever see quince in any of the other brands. The alcohol content is 6.9%. Serve well chilled.
The color is a pale golden yellow. The nose is musty, there is apple, pear, green grass and maybe quince (I admit I don’t know what quince smells like or tastes like for that matter). The Querry is a crisp, refreshing, dry cider. It starts with tart apple, fig, Bosc pear, there isn’t just one apple or pear taste, there is a mix, a stew of flavors, some mellow, some bright. The main flavors can be bold, but the sub notes are delicate and varied. This is a very adult cider, you wouldn’t think of mixing the Querry with a 50/50 mix of Harp ale to make a Snakebite.
The 2011 Bonny Doon Querry Cider fills the middle ground between wine and beer. It is crisp and refreshing in the way a good lager can be, but it also enjoys a subtle complexity and depth to the fruit flavors. The Querry Cider is priced around $15 or $16 for 750 ml bottle, roughly the same as a good smaller production wine. I enjoyed the Querry cider on a cold Chicago February afternoon and it seemed slightly out-of-place, but come the first signs of spring the Querry will be in its element.
