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The orchard: There are now 6000 trees of typica Pay’s d’Auge apple varieties. The trees average twelve years of age. The older the tree, the less the yield, and the better the character of fruit. Also, the low trees contain apples with more sugar. Therefore, much of the orchard is composed of low trees. Typical varieties include Saint-Martin, Binet, Noel de champs, Mettais, Frequin and Rouge Duret. Most are bitter sweet. Sweet, acidic, and tannic apples are all used in the same proportion for balance. Etienne Dupont believes that only one great cider can be made, given any set of apples, because the balance has to be perfect. There are three maturities for each general category of apples [bitter, sweet, acidic], giving nine types in all. Each type is collected at three different times between October and December subject to maturity. Soil is, calcareous, and marly. This soil produces small fruit with highly concentrated flavors perfect for the production of cider. No nitrates are used, allowing for a slow, complete fermentation. Nitrates act like steroids in apples, bulking the fruit up with water and lessening concentration of flavor. They are thus, undesirable. More importantly, apples are picked manually, making the quality of fruit consistantly high. The apples sit for 3 - 4 weeks in wooden cases of 300 kg which permits a complete ripening. Next the fruit is ground to obtain the pulp which must macerate for a few hours to extract colors and aromas. Next there is a slow pressing, with an output of 600 lts juice per ton of apples. This juice is put in a vat where it will go through a pre-fermenting clarification. Fermentation is induced by wild yeast sitting on the skin of the apples (no controlled champagne yeast is pitched). During the first week, pectines, that are in the apple juice form a colloid. As fermentation begins, the small CO2 bubbles tend to rise to the colloid carrying solid bits. This includes bits of skin pips , and more importantly, yeast and bacteria. These bits form a crust on top of the fermenting juice called “the brown hat”. It can be as hard as a cake, and very thick, (up to 10% of the total height of the liquid). Once most of the solid has been dragged to the top, the liquid is racked to another vessel. The slow fermentation process takes place, is checked, and is slowed if necessary by successive rackings. Left on its own, the juice ferments very slowly. It takes about three month to reach 4.5% abv. This slow fermentation insures a very complex cider. When the cider reaches 1022 gravity, it is racked again and bottled. This takes place in April / May. The sparkling process will continue during six weeks in a fresh cellar. |
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