Following on from the success of Eastern Delight at the 2012 Southampton Beer Festival (it was crowned 'Cider of the Festival', the eastern style cider has been awarded Gold Medal at the 2013 Winchester Ale and Cider Festival.
This is particularly satisfying for us at 146; many competitions around the UK have very little place for a cider made exclusively from dessert fruit - in fact, in the west they are often dismissed as having some kind of fault. I have long felt that this was a mistake, that a cider made from high quality, heritage varieties of dessert apples (the ones that focus more on flavour and less on being crisp and sweet) could make an interesting cider.
This is the start of the 2013 cider competition season - so lets see what else we have in store this year.