Cider: ETIENNE DUPONT CIDRE BOUCHE´ BRUT DE NORMANDIE ORGANIC 2011
Thoughts On A Bottle: Tasting Journal:
Review Note: Solo tasting. Team tasting review to follow.
In The Glass: Slight POP on opening. Pale, light medium golden with tinges of green and amber. Clear, bright, with miniscule bead, minimal mousse. Aromas of yeast, raw and cooked apple, orchard, sous bois, and tannins. Tastes of red and green apple skins, a tad meaty, band-aid, wet grass, woody, green notes, bark, slightly leathery. Sweetness – caramel, toffee, raisins, warm sugars, honey. Celery, rhubarb, herbal. Sweet and bitter notes, light tannins, not much acidity.
2nd glass: Mineral notes, wet stones. Slate-y, green, moss, deciduous trees, mown hay. Tidal flats, hint of salt, a bit floral, freesia. As bottle warms up acidity is more apparent – now showing some legs/tears. Far off hints of pine, cedar, bark. The green woody notes cut the sweet, sugar, apple, and honey.
More: Resin, freesia, honey, butter, spice.
Empty glass: Honey, wet tanned hides, damp straw. Visible sediment.
Temperature definitely affects experience of cider. As bottle warms up more flavor and aroma qualities are apparent.
Future tastings should utilize beverage thermometer to test temperature of cider being reviewed to see how variations in temperature affect how cider is experienced.
Pairings – The Tasting Lab: None.
Overall Impressions: Sweet grass. Passing pleasing bitter notes. Intriguing perfume. Damp hay and barnyard. Resin, freesia, honey, butter, salt and stones.
Cider: ETIENNE DUPONT CIDRE BOUCHE´ BRUT DE NORMANDIE ORGANIC 2011
Maker: Domaine Dupont
Origin: Normandy, France website: www.calvados-dupont.com
Importer: B. United International, Inc. website: www.bunitedint.com
ABV: 4.5% Bottle: 750 ml, champagne cork
Style Notes: USDA Organic. Unfiltered and unpasteurized. Made with naturally occurring yeasts. The fermentation is controlled by successive racking. Bottled between May and April. No sulfites added.
Fruit: Apples. 100% organically grown apples of the Bisquet, Joly Rouge, Douce Coet and Binet Rouge variety.
Makers Fruit Notes: The apples and the techniques used to make the cider are in conformity with American standards relating to organic agriculture, “N.O.P. Organic”. The apples are entirely untreated.
Note: Domaine Dupont labels each bottling with vintage year.
Makers Notes on Terrior:
www.calvados-dupont.com/en/orchards
The poor soils of the Pays d’Auge region, consisting of marl and chalky marl of the Oxfordian (secondary era) limit the growth of the trees and this leads to the production of small apples. The aromatic intensity is thereby increased and the ratio of skin to pulp helps to favour the extraction of tannins. Nitrogenous fertilisers (which swell the fruit by water retention) are not used – giving priority to quality rather than yield.
From Wikipedia:
Marl: Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt. The dominant carbonate mineral in most marls is calcite, but other carbonate minerals such as aragonite, dolomite, and siderite may be present. Marl was originally an old term loosely applied to a variety of materials, most of which occur as loose, earthy deposits consisting chiefly of an intimate mixture of clay and calcium carbonate, formed under freshwater conditions; specifically an earthy substance containing 35–65% clay and 65-35% carbonate.[1]
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