Normandie

Sommelier at the 3 stars Michelin restaurant of Alain Passard in Paris, Eric Bordelet had the chance to rub shoulders with some of the greatest name of the French wine world.

Inspired by strong personalities, like his close friend Didier Dagueneau, he decided in 1992 to go back to his family roots and took over the family farm in Normandy where Apple and Pear production is the local heritage.

Though his destiny was not in vine-growing he decided to apply the same oenological knowledge to the cidre and Poiré production. Conscious of the “necessity to respect the soil and the fruit to make a soulful product” he decided to convert his entire production to Biodynamy.

After few minutes chatting with Eric you understand that “Terroir” is not a notion reserved to wine “The subsoil, here, is a fusion of schist and granite, that force the fruits to struggle and as matter of fact to concentrate their aromas and deliver smoky and musky notes”. His orchard is rich of a stunning patrimony of dozens of heirloom apple and pear coming from tercentennial trees for the older ones, and providing a personality that you find nowhere else in France.

All his fruits are harvested manually in small crates, or just fell from the tree like from the pear, and are sorted in the orchard. Eric blends his varieties strictly following a classification in three categories “ Bitter fruits for the structure, soft and sweet for the flesh, sour for the aromatic character”. After blending, the fruits are crushed, pressed gently, their juice is then decanted, and undergo Natural ancestral fermentation. Bottled after a month for the sweeter, after 2 month for the off-dry and 4 month for the Brut.

The style of his Cidres and Poirés are inspired by the finest Champagne and showcase a salinity and a remarkable finesse of the bubbles. “I learned from Anselme Selosse [The quintessence of the grower Champagne] that a concentrated product cover up the bubble” Eric always says.

Even though his products can be found in all the greatest table around the globe and can inspire the most adventurous pairing, nothing better for me than sharing a Camenbert au lait cru with Eric and his wife Céline on their kitchen table…