Marvellous! Do you think the taste was altered by the cider?

Most definitely YES!
Washed rind cheeses have different tastes when washed with brine/sweet white wine/beer/cider/diluted wiskey or cogniac…...

Great! So do you use the various washes in accordance with   a classic recipe for the cheese and wash combination or do you experiment with different washes with various cheeses. Like…. thinking about the various posts above I’m thinking of a Manchego with wine-simmered walnuts and washed in red wine. What do you think? Maybe I’ll try it with a manchego and then progress to a harder more aged type cheese.

Mostly I like to experiment with lactic type cheeses, with and without adding pen. candidum according to rind wash. There are cheeses like Manchego, I pay respect to the basic characteristics of this cheese, although I can not get La Mancha sheeps milk. I make it from raw cows milk with lipase addition.