Cidrerie du Vulcain Rose de Torny Cidre

About Cidrerie du Vulcain Rose de Torny Cidre

Cidrerie du Vulcain Rose de Torny Cidre has a lovely, fruity, and citrusy attack, a precise and elegant palate, very little sugar, and excellent structure. A rich cider that can pair with the most complex dishes.

La Rose de Torny is an unknown variety from a tree identified in 2001 and felled in 2009. After grafting and planting 200 half-standard trees, the first harvest of this variety was able to take place nine years later. The apples are picked by hand, followed by partial fermentation with indigenous yeasts and coarse filtration to attain the desired amount of residual sugar. Secondary fermentation in the bottle, with a microdose of sulphur.

About Jacques Perritaz

About Cidrerie du Vulcain

Jacques’ cider mill is located in the basement of an old 19th-century tile factory. Though the building is large, his part is a collection of a few unadorned small rooms only: Cidrerie du Vulcain is cidre de garage.

After pressing, the juice is clarified for two days. Because Jacques’ varieties have less tannin, clarification without intervention is near impossible. He uses an enzyme to facilitate the process, but it is a natural extract of mushrooms authorized for certified organic uses.

Fermentation is strict with natural yeasts in stainless or epoxy tanks. It is vigorous for the first two weeks when it consumes about half the available sugar. At this point, Jacques’ true craft begins: tiring the yeasts with two to three filtrations, so that fermentation can proceed slowly, and the juice can eventually be bottled without the adjunction of sugar or yeast to finish its fermentation in a bottle where it will produce mousse naturally. Jacques, and this is uncommon, never artificially carbonates his ciders.

After the first filtration, the juice is put back into the tank. If fermentation is slow to restart, Jacques may add a little of the unfiltered juice he always keeps back as a starter, as in his opinion a slow restart is a vector for Brettanomyces growth. If fermentation needs to be slowed again, Jacques may filter again. All filtrations are light, on Kieselghur diatomaceous earth, the same equipment as used for wine, but Jacques adds (with uncontained exasperation) “The process is much messier with cider.”

There is usually a final filtration before bottling and addition of sulfur: he aims for 15 ppm total, well within the “natural” threshold. No sulfur is added at any other time, except when faced with accidents which are rare.