2020 Eric Bordelet Sydre Argelette
REGION: Normandy, FR
SIZE: 750ml / ABV: 5%
This prestigious offering combines 19 apple varieties, prepared according to an ancestral method of maceration. The nose exhales a mixture of fruity and mineral notes: stewed apple apricot, lemon, honey and mile spices. Ample, balanced palate, boasting intense flavours, brought out by extremely small bubbles. A premium cider that can be served with a meal or offered as an aperitif and indeed Normand's cheese.
After a long, respected career as Chef Sommelier at michelin-starred restaurant l’Arpege in Paris, Eric Bordelet returned to his family’s windswept orchards in Normandy to embark on a new adventure as a cider producer. Taking over the 19 hectares family property of Château de Hauteville, Bordelet planted 22 additional hectares orchards in fields that had been fallow, and then transitioned the property to biodynamic practices. 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. Much of Bordelet’s production is from pre-French revolution apple and pear orchards of “heirloom” varieties planted in granite and schiste soils. All have a gentle mousse, and though they vary in perceptible sweetness, the ciders and poirés of Eric Bordelet are defined by their beautiful balance, taught acidities and a complexity that rivals great wines.