Julien Frémont Réserve Calvados
REGION: Normandy, FR
SIZE: 500ml / ABV: 42%
The label might look a bit rustic, but there is nothing rustic about what is inside the bottle. It is the most elegant, smooth, flavoursome Calvados that we have ever tried. Despite the 42% alcohol there is no hot burning sensation in the throat with this drink, just a smooth, supple and immensely satisfying experience. Julien’s family has been distilling Calvados from the cider juice for hundreds of years. In the old building there are registered alambic stills dating back many years. This Calvados is typical of the style produced in the Pays d’Auge region but all the better for being produced from organic apples!
This Calvados is labelled as Réserve which means that, by law, it must have been matured for at least three years in old wooden barrels. The Calvados in both of these bottles comes from the 2015 distillation therefore are classified as Réserve because they have been in barrels for more than the required three years. The only problem is that the word Réserve does not appear on the 700 mls label, but Julien assures us that it does qualify.
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.