I have seen Ace cider at our local brew shop for a while, and have to confess that the packaging and label had always steered me away from reaching out to try this. It seemed, to me at least, a little frivolous and not ''serious''...and I'm all serious business about my ciders, dontcha know. I had concerns that this would be from a winery or brewery that didn't really know ciders well.

I finally got past my label prejudice, and I'm so very glad I did (please contrast this to my Magner's review--I think I've learned that I can't judge a cider by the label anymore!). The appearance on the pour was attractive. A very clear light-to-medium straw color, with a fair amount of carbonation. The scent was like a dry white wine with an afterglow of apple. The mouthfeel was really fun--frothy, like champagne, and the carbonation held up for a long time as I slowly savored it. The flavor was not like a typical cider. This is on the drier side, and the flavor matched the scent in a champagne-like quality. The apple wasn't very assertive, but it had this great tangy quality to it. Its like a bottle of champagne had a threesome with a hefeweizen and a Jonagold apple, and threw in an apricot on top. The front end, middle, and aftertaste were really well balanced in this; the tangy, yeastiness (is that a word? meh, I just made it one if it isn't) lasted for several seconds. I took a long time to finish this, and the cider got even more enjoyable for me after it had warmed up about 5-10 degrees or so from fully refrigerated. It was only after I had finished that I looked at where this was made, and seeing that this was a product from Sonoma County made a lot of sense to me, considering the wine-like qualities (maliadore, can't wait to hear your thoughts on this too!).

Overall, a damn good, very enjoyable cider. It is a cider with a touch of a savory quality to it; this seems like it would be a great ''food cider''. Next time I'm at the brew shop, I'll pick up a couple more and do experiments to see what goes best with it. I'm betting a creamy cheese like brie on crusty bread....mmmm....