‘The greatest cider in the world’
Didier Dagueneau on Eric Bordelet’s Poiré Granit
Eric Bordelet’s ciders and calvados are simply without peer; as the leading French wine magazine La Revue du Vins de France says, ‘hors classe’, or ‘beyond classification’.
Eric approaches Cider-making with the same intensity as a passionate oenologist brings to winemaking. He worked as sommelier in the leading 3 star Parisian restaurant, Arpège where he became deeply familiar with the top winemakers and wineries of France.
In 1992 he took over the tiny patch of family farmed orchards in Charchigné, in the heart of Normandy’s premium Cider producing area. In the years since, he set about rescuing ancient heirloom varieties of pears and apples that were no longer commercially grown, replanting many of these in his own orchard creating a remarkable bank of trees that produce tiny quantities of fruit and amazing flavour.
Like great wine, great cider is a reflection of the underlying terroir of the orchards, the quality and the variety of the fruit trees planted, the yields in the orchard and of course, the age of the trees. The same deep, intricate root systems that deliver unmatched complexity in wines produced from old vines are at play in the orchard as well, with older trees producing better fruit to work with than younger trees. Eric’s artisan approach means that now up to 20 varieties of apple and 15 varieties of pear contribute to the complexity of his Ciders and Poirés. And some of the trees are over 300 years old! All fruit is dry-farmed using bio-dynamic practices and is hand harvested in order to eliminate any green matter. The fruit is dried for between 3-5 weeks before being ground and simply pressed. The juice temperature is regulated and clarified by settling and racking several times. All fermentation is done with indigenous yeast. The Ciders and Poirés are made in a very gentle petillant style in order to show more fruit character, depth and complexity.
‘The fruit we work with looks quite different from what you'll find in the grocery store. I know what each apple variety brings to the cider. I use about 40% of sweet apples, 40% sour apples and 20% of acidic apples to get the right balance.’ Eric Bordelet.
