Cidre du Vulcain 'Transparente Sec' Apple Cider 2020 750ml 4.5%

"Floral attractive aromas, this is Sec or Dry. Beautiful clear and strident fruit flavours. The acidity is savory and the palate is a perfectly balanced trinity of salt, acidity, and delicate fruit, delivered with such lightness of texture — that Alpine feeling: not diluted but elusive and aerial, and incredibly refreshing, mouthwatering actually. A superb, stimulating and refreshing cidre!" - Andrew Guard

"Jacques Perritaz was working as a biologist for the Swiss government when he decided to abandon the life of report writing in favour of a career that would bring him closer to nature. At first, Jacques considered becoming a winemaker and started working for a few Swiss producers. During his time in the countryside Jacques began to notice old forgotten apple trees scattered in the wild or in small pastures that belonged to people with little interest in harvesting the fruit. Jacques became fascinated with these abandoned trees and in 2000 decided to set up a small cider mill in an old tile factory in Gruyère and started making cider from foraged fruit. Jacques works with ancient Swiss apple varieties that are too rare and yield too little fruit for commercial use. The trees are all untreated and some of them are up to 200 years old. Each year Jacques picks the fruit of 150-200 trees. Although the trees can only produce tiny quantities of apples every year - largely due to their age - the fruit they yield is of exceptional quality and concentration of flavour. Jacques only uses indigenous yeasts in the fermentation process, and unlike most cider producers, he never artificially carbonates - preferring to keep the cider as natural as possible. Today, Jacques works with apples, pears, and quince producing cider that is unusually delicate and complex. In 2006, Jacques was visiting Normandy where he met an old farmer. Their conversation quickly turned to cider (Normandy is France’s premier cider producing region.) “You should go visit this guy in Hauteville”, the farmer raved, “he sells his Poiré for 10 euros!" The farmer thought about the price for a second. "Something’s wrong”, he added warily. In France, success is often greeted with suspicions of malfeasance. The guy in Hauteville turned out to be Eric Bordelet and the chance encounter changed Jacques’ life: “Bordelet was making cider like others made great wine. And he was selling them. It was possible.” Jacques borrowed money to invest in equipment, particularly a bottling line (until then he had used an inefficient small hand-bottling contraption) and began producing cider on a commercial scale. Eric, who is normally secretive with other cider producers about his methods, has remained a mentor to Jacques. At the Renaissance des Appellations in Angers in 2015, Eric told us “I usually don’t share my secrets with others. But I like what Jacques is doing.”" - Andrew Guard