World Québec
Le Québec tombe dans les pommes
The world’s first ice cider show was held in Rougement, Quebec from February 15th to 17th 2008, in the village of Montérégie (70 km east of Montreal), which proclaimed itself to be Canada’s “apple capital”. Sponsored enthusiastically by Véronique Rivest, ‘Canada’s Best Sommelier’ in 2006, the creator of this event was cider-maker, Francis Lavoie (whose ice cider, ‘Ace’, won a silver medal at the show).
But what exactly is ice cider?
“It is made by pressing frozen apples and then carrying out the alcoholic fermentation of the apple juice.” It is clearly concentrated, sweet apple wine (150 grams of residual sugar on average), with a relatively low content of alcohol (7° to 13°) and it is usually flat, not sparkling! Varieties of apple generally used are Macintosh, Spartan, Cortland, Royal Gala, Empire, Smoothee, Liberté, Orville, Golden Russet, Trent… The juice is extracted by cryoextraction
or cryoconcentration. To make half a bottle of ice cider takes 7 kilos of apples!
Using the method of cryoextraction, apples are left on the trees until January. Pressed while they are still frozen, when exterior temperatures oscillate between -8°C and -15°C, the apples ares shrivelled by the cold and their sugar content is concentrated in the same way as a currant.
A “nobler” and riskier method, due to the hazards of weather conditions, it is also a rarer technique.
With cryoconcentration, apples are harvested in autumn and left in the cold (but absolutely not artificially frozen), before being pressed during the Christmas season. The juice is then left outside again and freezes naturally. Water contained in the juice separates from the sugar, which is then gathered and fermented at a low temperature for a period of six or seven months.
An AOC for ice cider is currently being established. As strict as regulations for our AOCs in France, it stipulates that the ice cider-maker must grow his own apples, only use natural cold conditions and all elaboration procedures, including bottling, must be carried out at his or her own domain, without chaptalisation or addition of any flavouring or colouring.
Tasting ice ciders, with their gleaming golden hue, brings to mind the finest Sauternes wines. Their aromas and flavours express fresh or cooked apple, caramel and vanilla, a touch of acidity similar to the tang of rhubarb, at times a hint of apricot, pineapple or candied orange zest… Local sommeliers recommend food combinations with ice ciders which resemble those suggested for French sweet white wines: foie gras, certain types of cheese and desserts… made with apples, of course!
In France, at ‘Lafayette Gourmet’ on the Boulevard Haussman in Paris, it is regularly possible to find ice ciders made at the domain ‘La Face cachée de la pomme’ and in ‘Monoprix’ stores, those made at ‘Lafrance’. This is excellent news, because both producers were the winners of the competition organised during the ice cider show. So, if you are going to try ice cider for the first time you might as well taste the very best!
Hélène Piot
