Julien Frémont Pommeau Aperitif

REGION: Normandy, FR
SIZE: 500ml
ABV: 18%

Pommeau is a blend of unfermented apple juice (75%) and a very powerful Calvados (62% ABV). It spent 8 years in barrel. It is very fragrant, with lovely cooked-apple bitterness and a great length in the mouth. Typically an aperitif in Normandy it can be drunk neat over ice or mixed with something sparkling. We’re sure it could be the basis of some delicious cocktails too. The bottles are 700 ml and it is 18% ABV. Very limited.

Julien Frémont is a cider and Calvados maker from Normandy who makes cider the same way that his family has made it since the early 1700s – and using the same beautiful wooden press that the family has owned since that time. The only differences between the old way and Julien’s way is that he prefers dry cider and the traditional approach was to make sweet cider in this region. Julien tends his orchard using organic and biodynamic principles. Cows graze between the trees to keep the ground cover healthy.

After he hand-harvests the apples they are carried to the loft in the large, ancient building that dominates the farm using a ‘home grown’ pulley system of little buckets that carry them upwards. Here he ‘cures’ them for at least a month and sometimes for many months so that the flavours concentrate as the apples dry out. This dramatically reduces the juice yield when the apples are finally pressed but significantly improves the flavour of the cider. We find his ciders immensely satisfying and beautifully crafted and he uses no additions. No sulphites are added at any time. There are also some oxidative notes to his cider as the wooden barrels he uses are over 100 years old. This adds even more complexity to the finished product