Sensory descriptor
Dried apricot
Concentrated stone fruit with an oxidative edge, from lactones developing alongside acetaldehyde and phenolic oxidation.
- Aroma family
- Stone fruit
- Does it indicate a fault?
- No — a normal part of cider and perry aroma
What causes it
Where fresh apricot character is lactones with sugar, dried apricot is lactones with oxidation. As a cider ages under mild oxygen ingress, acetaldehyde accumulates and phenolics polymerise, and both shift the fruit perception from fresh to dried. Sotolon, the lactone responsible for the characteristic aroma of very old fortified wines and of long-aged oxidative styles generally, forms slowly from precursors in the presence of oxygen and reinforces the effect. In ice cider stored several years the note is close to universal.
The compounds responsible
Where the molecule is established. Some descriptors in this lexicon name a compound the compound register does not yet hold a record for; those are named in the cause above instead.
Lactones
Cyclic esters that give peach and apricot character, formed from fatty acids and often carried in bound form, which is why stone-fruit notes can appear in a cider months after fermentation.
Acetaldehyde
The compound sitting one step short of ethanol, which smells of bruised apple and sherry, binds most of the sulphite added to a cider, and is the chemical signature of oxidation.
Total phenolics
The single number used to summarise everything phenolic in a juice, useful for comparing fruit and misleading whenever it is used to predict how a cider will taste.
Dissolved oxygen
Essential to a healthy yeast population at the start of fermentation and the principal enemy of a cider from the moment fermentation ends.
What raises it
Processes that increase this character, or preserve it where it would otherwise be lost.
Oxidative maturation
Ageing a cider with a deliberate, measured oxygen supply so that tannins polymerise and soften and an aldehydic character develops on purpose, which is not the same thing as the oxidation fault.
Barrel ageing
Holding cider in wood — which may mean an old neutral vat used simply as a vessel, or fresh or spirit-seasoned oak used as a source of flavour, and the two are not the same operation.
Bottle maturation
What happens to a cider after it is sealed in glass — which for most ciders is slow decline rather than improvement, and saying so is more useful than implying otherwise.
Topping up
Refilling a maturing vessel as evaporation and racking losses lower the level, so that no significant surface of cider is ever left in contact with air.
Where it is usually met
Fruit and styles this character is recorded in. A record here is where the descriptor is commonly found, not a claim that every example shows it.
About Dried apricot
This descriptor sits deliberately at the boundary between the stone-fruit and oxidative families, and it is filed under stone fruit because the fruit identity is what the taster perceives first. Its cause is very largely oxidative.
In a young cider intended to be fresh it is an age or oxygen-management problem. In a fortified or concentrated style it is normal development.
Others in the stone fruit family
Peach, apricot, nectarine.
Apricot
A concentrated, faintly honeyed stone-fruit note from lactones at higher concentration, common in ice cider and sweet styles.
Peach
A soft, sweet stone-fruit aroma produced by γ- and δ-lactones formed during fermentation and maturation.
Marzipan
A sweet almond note from benzaldehyde, produced when apple or pear pips are crushed during milling.
Plum
Dark, soft stone-fruit weight from heavier ethyl esters combined with polymerised phenolics in matured cider.
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- Does cider get better with age — Some does. Tannic, dry, bottle-conditioned ciders and ice ciders can gain for several years. Light, fruit-driven and commercially filtered ciders lose their aroma and do not gain anything in exchange.
- What is ice cider — Ice cider is made by concentrating apple juice by freezing before fermentation, so that the ferment starts from a very high sugar level and stops sweet. It is a Quebec speciality with a protected definition there.
- How much headspace should a cider fermenter have
- Should i ferment cider in an oak barrel — A sound, full barrel is a fine maturation vessel; a leaky, half-empty or previously spoiled one is the fastest route to vinegar. Wood cannot be sterilised, so a barrel carries whatever lived in it before.
- Does cider contain antioxidants — Cider carries apple polyphenols, and tannic bittersweet ciders carry considerably more than pale ones made from dessert fruit. What that means for health is a clinical question this site does not adjudicate.
- What is acetaldehyde
Where to go next
- The sensory model — The thirteen structural dimensions and the twenty aroma families, in full.
- Compounds — The chemistry behind the words.
- Troubleshooting — When a perception turns out to be a problem, this is where it is diagnosed.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.
University of Vermont cider research
University of Vermont Extension · university · retrieved 2026-08-24
Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité (INAO)
INAO · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
The Cidre Pays d’Auge cahier des charges was read in full on 2026-08-24, in the version homologated by arrêté of 17 January 2026 and published in the Journal officiel on 21 January. That qualification is not decoration. A revision adopted by the Comité national on 10 September 2025 is currently under the procédure nationale d’opposition, is clearly marked as not prejudging the final text, and specifies carbonation differently from the text in force — as grams of CO2 per litre rather than as a minimum pressure in bar. A summary citing the draft would have put a figure on the page that no producer is held to. CiderHQ records the operative text and says which one it is.