The Schtick: Todays review is pretty interesting, as it’s a very unique spirit, at least for me. Distilled from cider produced by Cyril, this Eau de Vie is then distilled by Jean-Roger Groult. The cider used is produced from a unique blend of apples: 70% bitter, 20% sweet, and 10% sour. They are ripened, then cellared, and pressed. This produced 680 liters of juice from 2000lbs of apples. Fermented with a single racking, the cider is further rested on lees for 10 months before the distilling process kicks off. Groult distills using a 12 hL pot still that’s wood fired, with the heads of distillation discarded before a couple week rest. A second distillation takes place, again with cutting off the heads, and the distillate is proofed to 50% ABV. It’s rested for a month, then bottled, and shipped on over. That’s quite a process, and very interesting, so it’s fair to say I’m looking forward to tasting this. Let’s dive in.
Nose: Complex, rich, loaded with cider notes, clove, apple. Powerful and enticing, lots of good character to it.
Taste: Rich, toffee, apple, caramel and a sweet bready note. Complex and effervescent, bright and fruity. Really impressive how much unique apple character this dram manages to hold onto without feeling syrupy, artificial or musty.
Finish: Long, rich and really reminiscent of an apple pie made with fuji apples. All over the place in the best, fruity way.
Overall: This is wild, I can’t recall having something like this before. I’m a fan. Giddy up.
