Sensory descriptor
Plum
Dark, soft stone-fruit weight from heavier ethyl esters combined with polymerised phenolics in matured cider.
- Aroma family
- Stone fruit
- Does it indicate a fault?
- No — a normal part of cider and perry aroma
What causes it
Plum in cider is a composite of two developments that happen together during maturation. Ethyl esters of medium-chain fatty acids — ethyl octanoate and ethyl decanoate in particular — supply a heavier, darker fruit weight than the light acetate esters of fresh apple. At the same time procyanidins polymerise and lose the aggressive edge of their oligomeric forms, softening the phenolic structure into something rounder. The two together read as dark stone fruit rather than as apple, and the perception is strongest in tannic ciders after a year or more.
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.
Ethyl octanoate
A medium-chain ethyl ester contributing ripe pear and a waxy sweetness, and one of the compounds that makes an ester-forward cider feel rounder as well as fruitier.
Ethyl decanoate
The longest of the common medium-chain esters, contributing waxy and faintly floral weight rather than obvious fruit, and prone to dropping out of solution in the cold.
Procyanidins
The condensed tannins of cider fruit, whose chain length — not their quantity — decides whether the mouth registers bitterness or astringency.
What raises it
Processes that increase this character, or preserve it where it would otherwise be lost.
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.
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.
Tank maturation
Resting cider in stainless steel or a lined vessel, where the point of the container is that it contributes nothing and admits almost no oxygen.
Lees ageing
Deliberately holding a cider or perry on its fine yeast deposit so that autolysing cells release material that changes texture and foam behaviour.
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 Plum
This descriptor is met almost exclusively in tannic ciders with age, and it is a reasonable proxy for phenolic maturation in the way that leather is for a different phenolic pathway. A young bittersweet cider does not smell of plum; the same cider at three years often does.
Where a cider is a fruit cider with plums or damsons added, the word carries no mechanistic content and the addition should be recorded instead.
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.
Dried apricot
Concentrated stone fruit with an oxidative edge, from lactones developing alongside acetaldehyde and phenolic oxidation.
Marzipan
A sweet almond note from benzaldehyde, produced when apple or pear pips are crushed during milling.
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 are procyanidins in cider — They are the condensed tannins of apples: chains of catechin-type units whose length decides how much of the phenolic load reads as bitterness and how much as astringency. Two ciders with identical total tannin can taste nothing alike.
- How is cider matured
- 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.
- What does vintage mean on a cider — On a cider label, vintage means the fruit came from a single named harvest year rather than from blended seasons. In most markets the word is not legally controlled for cider.
- What is a traditional west country cider blend — Predominantly bittersweet fruit for body and tannin, with a proportion of sharp fruit for acidity and sometimes a smaller share of bittersharps for both. The exact composition varied by farm and by what was in the orchard.
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.
Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE)
INRAE · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
French national agricultural research. Its Angers programme produced much of the published work on apple procyanidin chain length and on the relationship between polymer size, bitterness and astringency.
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.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.