2023-06-11 12:06:24
Based in Loury, in the Loiret countryside, between Orléans and Gien, Julien Thurel participates in the cider and perry renewal movement, observed for several years in France. Helped by the association Terres de lien, which found him his orchard, this ornithologist and former forestry officer has been exploiting 19 hectares for a decade – occupied by 4,000 trees, including very old varieties of apples – which he shares with his wife, a beekeeper.
Demanding and inspired by agroecology, this 40-year-old is working to produce ciders, perries and cormés (1) “with the same vinification techniques as the great wines”, he displays, claiming to produce beverages “in bubbles and with totally natural aromas”. He thus invested one million euros to equip his warehouse with stainless steel vats, promoting thermoregulation, and wooden barrels.
A modernized image
Like many other neo-producers – including a significant number of women – he wanted to break with industrial practices. “which produce ciders that are 80 or even 90% carbonated and pasteurized”. Even before taking possession of his orchard, he had made a first attempt in the early 2010s, and this first professional cuvée had aroused the interest of Éric Baron, producer in Finistère and supplier to the Élysée. Its turnover, now €200,000, is growing year after year.
Cider is changing status. The gaze of the public is gradually changing, passing, according to the specialized journalist and columnist of the program “On va goûter” (France Inter), Dominique Hutin, ” from the drink, friendly and popular, that we buy on Candlemas, to a more trendy, urban and sophisticated image”.
Vintage ciders
Specialized fairs like CidrExpo, the great international meeting of cider producers which takes place every year in Caen, at the end of March, attract wine merchants, who come to enrich their range and discover new talents, while cider sommeliers have appeared in large cities. Distribution giants like Nicolas (of the Castel Frères group), the world’s second largest wine player, are not mistaken. They give an ever greater place to ciders from producers, who are spreading beyond Brittany and Normandy, the great traditional French bastions of the sector.
And the chefs of the great gastronomic tables feed their menu with vintage ciders – the prices of which can reach around thirty euros a bottle – alongside great vintages. “What beer experienced in the early 2000s is happening with the craft breweries that have sprung up everywhere,” compares Dominique Hutin.
For a European definition
“Producers now have the opportunity to deploy in cellars with high visibility. This openness to cider on the part of distributors and restaurateurs is a strong marker”, supports the man who is also the founder of the recent Cider method nature union, with the ambition of uniting these emerging players, “who do not always come from the agricultural world”.
The sector, which according to the Unicid (National Interprofessional Cidricultural Union), “sells nearly 100 million bottles to the market each year in France”, seeks, moreover, to bring order to the normative framework, by insisting that the European Union drafts a precise and binding definition of cider. Because this market, with its juicy potential, has awakened the appetite of industry giants such as Heineken, one of the world’s major producers of “cider”, a derivative of cider, which contains less than 30% apples… And many sugar.
#cider #upmarket