Domaine Lesuffleur

Benoit’s Grandfather made Cider. His father kept the orchards but has been selling the fruit. Now Benoit is slowly taking control of the orchards and making Cider under the Lesuffleur name once again. Benoit’s goal is for cider to be taken as seriously as wine. His farming, his eye towards terroir, his blending and his production methods are all reminiscent of a great wine house. And Benoit is no stranger to great wine - his day job is selling wine in Paris where he represents some iconic domaines. These are serious bottles that merit attention, and they are flat out delicious too. All the apples are harvested by hand. Benoit uses minimal sulfur and no other additions. The process is method ancestrale and all the ciders are disgorged. (Apple Pet Nat!) While he is in the Pays d’Auge appellation for cider, he generally uses more sharp apples than the appellation allows, so he does not use it on the label.

Domaine Lesuffleur La Folletiere

This comes from a young orchard of low branch trees with high planting density. The soils are flint and clay over chalk. He uses over 12 varieties of apples, with a blend of 40% bittersweet, 35% bitter and 25% sharp to attain a wonderful balance of juicy sweet apple, sharp acidity and apple skin tannin.

Domaine Lesuffleur Friardel

This comes from a high branch orchard of trees that are 50 to 100 years old. The trees well spaced in soils of flint and clay over chalk. The blend of over 12 varieties here has a higher percentage of bitter apple at 49% blended with 36% bittersweet and 15% sharp.