Made by: Les Celliers Associés cooperative

Made in: Pleudihen sur Rance, Brittany

Style: Dry

ABV: 6%

Carbonation: Lightly Sparkling

Bought: N/a

Price: N/a

Producer’s website: Val de Rance

This is the second bottle from the collection carted back from Brittany by my very lovely half-French sister in law and this time it’s actually from Brittany, rather than neighbouring Normandy.

It’s made in a little town called Pleudihen sur Rance, not too far south of Saint-Malo and, rather delightfully, is the work of a cooperative that’s been producing cider for over 60 years. The Celliers Associés cooperative started in 1953 when 12 apple growers from the Rance Valley decided to work together and now brings together 189 producers in Brittany and 212 producers in Normandy, who supply an average 25,000 tonnes of apples a year.

The Brittany-specific Val de Rance range is IGP certified, meaning that it is made exclusively of Breton apples and is bottled in Brittany. The cooperative also takes a very proactive approach to sustainability and has been Agri Confiance Certified since 2002 which certifies the highest standards of waste management, natural resource management (water, energy, lands) and biodiversity. Two thumbs up.

TASTING NOTES, AFTER A FASHION:

As is common in that part of the world, this is a keeved cider which helps it retain some sweetness by effectively halting the fermentation process before it’s had the chance to convert all of the sugar to alcohol. Still, it’s a reasonably chunky 6% abv.

The cider is mildly cloudy in the glass and is an unusual colour that’s somewhere between gold and orange. It’s lively enough when poured but the fizz quickly dissipates leaving it looking very much like a slightly murky still cider, no bad thing.

On the nose it’s got a lot of that sweet, boiled candy thing going on that you get with a lot of French ciders and it also reeks of what smells to me more like over-ripe pears than apples.

Taste-wise it’s got lots of front-end acidity with a pronounced but very engaging sourness to it. The tannins kick in mid way through although they are still fairly restrained and lead to a lovely long and drying finish.

It’s under-powered for my taste in that it could do with a bit more of everything to lift it and give it some depth and character. The fruit is kind of washed out. It falls a little flat by mid-palate and the sourness becomes too much of the experience after a glass or two but it’s still a very quaffable, very honest and very easy to drink drop.

3️⃣/5️⃣