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Drinking in the
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Going to Brittany to look for the best independent breweries, Beer Connoisseur contributor Owen Ogletree has visited Domaine Dupont in Normandy:

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With a history of cider production dating back to 1887 and its own 50 acres of on-site orchards, the polished prize apple of the Normandy cider route has to be Famille Dupont.
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Many Dupont ciders are available in the USA, and Jerome works with American importers B. United in several innovative projects such as utilizing Champagne techniques for sparkling cider, experimenting with a variety of apple blends and aging cider in calvados barrels.

Visitors to Normandy should be sure to stop into Dupont’s bright and welcoming gift shop/tasting room and inquire about a tour.

Read the full story…

The September/October 2016 issue of the Jamie Oliver magazine asks:

« How d’you like them apples? Andy Harris visits Normandy, where the orchard harvest is in full swing, and unearths some deliciously sustaining rustic recipes using the region’s apples and calvados – including the rib-sticking honey-roasted duck with apples and baby onions that graces the issue’s cover. »

The article displays a photo of a Domaine Dupont calvados and lists the domain as a place to visit :
« Stunning calvados and cider, produced in small quantities through timeless methods ».

See article extract…

Dupont Calvados Pays d’Auge – VSOP 350 ml

« This small package contains a glorious, finessed Calvados. I always forget how much I love the smell of baked apples and brandy until a bottle like this is opened. Pure pleasure. Put under the tree for yourself and drink on Christmas Eve. »

« Old roots, New growth – Once obscure, hard cider is taking a bite out of the beverage market. »

This is how Cliff Rames titles his story about cider in the October/November issue of the California-based SOMM Journal (formerly The Sommelier Journal). Commenting the rising interest for the hard cider, he shows us how it can have many  forms or styles.

Jerome Dupont is quoted in the article and a nice photo of Jerome Dupont illustrates.

Read the article… or Visit the SOMM Journal website…

During his « Around the World in 80 Drams » expedition, Sam Smith has stopped at the Domaine Dupont…
He tells us about it in his Master of Malt blog, a presentation of the estate and fully detailed tasting notes on Domaine Dupont VSOP Calvados.
Read the full story …

 
« When we talk about apples, we think of cider, and when we talk about France, we think of wine. But when we talk about France and apples together, we should be talking—with all due respect to the tarte tatin—about Calvados. And more and more, we are. »

This is how Jim Clarke starts his well documented story on Calvados. Domaine Dupont Calvados is in his short list…

Read the entire article on Beverage Media Group …

The Boston Herald  – The Edge has recently published an article on the cider cocktails made by Ted Gallagher from Steel & Rye in Milton, Massachusets. This article was written by Kerry Byrne, a true cider connoisseur.
Click to read the article…

In addition, Ted Gallagher shares two of his favorite Calvados cocktails with us:

‘Lionheart’ by Ted Gallagher :
1.5 oz. Dupont Fine Reserve
0.5 oz. Rittenhouse Rye
0.125 (barspoon) maple syrup
dash St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram
dash Angostura Bitters
Build in mixing glass. Add ice, stir to integrate. Strain over large ice in chilled rocks glass. Express lemon oil over surface, garnish with peel or discard

‘Still Life’ by Gjergj Hakani, Lead Bartender
0.75 oz. Dupont Fine Reserve
0.75 oz. Old Overholt Rye
0.75 oz. Salers Aperitif
0.5 oz. Cynar
0.25 Combier Liqueur d’Orange
pinch of salt
Build in mixing glass. Add ice, stir.
Strain into chilled coupe glass.
Express orange oil lightly over surface, discard.

STEEL & RYE – 95 Eliot Street – Lower Mills – Milton, MA 02186 – USA – (617) 690-2787

The news and lifestyle network examiner.com introduces the Calvados Dupont Vieille Reserve in an excellent article from  wine and spirits connoisseur Hoke Harden:

« When you stroll through the wonderfully diverse world of great spirits, occasionally you come across certain singular pleasures you stop in your tracks, brought to an appreciative halt by the perfect evocation of fruit, maturation and place. Dupont Calvados Vielle Reserve du Pays d’Auge, a wood-matured apple brandy from the cold and blustery coast of Normandy, is one of those spirits. »
Read the entire article on the Examiner website…

Jason Wilson of The New York Times has visited Normandy to meet the new generation of Calvados producers:
« In Normandy, Young Ambition Stirs a Traditional Brandy »

(extract) Fifty years ago, there were about 15,000 Calvados producers in Normandy. Most of these were apple farmers who distilled for personal consumption, much of it rough stuff that became known by the slang term calva — indeed, the sort of thing old men drank with their morning coffee. Now, only about 300 producers of Calvados remain, and only about 20 brands are known outside the region.

But a serious group of younger producers, who have banded together under the name Esprit Calvados, is bringing Calvados into the 21st century through innovation and experimentation, as well as by reclaiming traditional farming and distilling methods. Reaching up from the roots of the farmhouse distiller, the new-wave Esprit Calvados collective consists of some of the most highly regarded Calvados producers: Domaine Dupont, Calvados Christian Drouin, Calvados Roger Groult, Domaine Pierre Huet and Le Père Jules. Each distillery is run by a son, each in his 30s or 40s, who has taken over from his father in the past decade.

“We are a young generation making a product that’s old-fashioned,” I was told by Jean-Roger Groult, 32, master distiller at Calvados Roger Groult. “We’re dusting off the image of Calvados.” (…)

>> Read the entire article on The New York Times website …

Following a visit at the domain, the Japanese magazine HERS recently included a feature article on Calvados Dupont.

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(click on image to see a closeup…)

« Linda cooks and Reinis shoots simple, tasty dish recipes that you can cook at home. »
This new Youtube channel presents a recipe of « Chocolate fondant with calvados« .
The Calvados is Domaine Dupont Vieille Reserve.
A nice video, with warmth and humour, very well done… and it does look tasty !

The Holiday 2013 issue of LCBO Food and Drink magazine (Ontario, Canada) has a nice mention of the Domaine Dupont Calvados VSOP. Titled « French Brandy », the article introduces the three major french brandies : Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados.

« Domaine Dupont VSOP Pays d’Auge Calvados is double distilled and aged for a minimum of four years. Intense and complex, it has aromas of apple, citrus and vanilla that become more pronounced if you add a drop or two of water to each glass. »

>> See the article …

World’s Best Cider is a brand new book by Pete Brown and Bill Bradshaw. Very well documented, it is undoubtly the best book on the subjet. In the Normandy section of this 256-page hardcover book, you may find a profile on Domaine Dupont as well as some of best producers of the area.

About the authors : Pete Brown writes the UK’s leading beer blog and was named 2009’s and 2012’s Beer Writer of the Year. He appears regularly on TV, radio and in print and currently writes two regular columns in brewing and pub trade magazines in the UK and the US. Bill Bradshaw is a freelance photographer who has been documenting cider for the last seven years as an ongoing personal project. His cider images are on permanent display at the Hereford Cider Museum and he has been published internationally in various magazines including the prestigious Spanish magazine La Sidra. His images and travels are documented on his blog IAMCIDER.

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Book description : « World’s Best Ciders is the first book to showcase the world of cider, from its origins as a thirst-quencher for farm workers to its present as a rival to champagne. Travelling from the Old to the New World and teaching us not only how to taste it but how to cook with it, Pete Brown and Bill Bradshaw explore every aspect of this fascinating drink and the people who produce it. Here you’ll discover what Johnny Appleseed really planted, find out what the Magners’ effect is and learn why perry is a miracle drink.
Beginning in the sidrerias of Asturias, Spain, where cider has been part of the culture for thousands of years, the authors then travel north to Normandy and Brittany in France, to the famous cider regions of Somerset, the Three Counties and Wales in the UK and then across the Atlantic, to New England and Quebec where cider is being re-invented, taken out of bars and into restaurants. Over 200 ciders are described in detail, with tasting notes, and illustrated with hundreds of Bill Bradshaw’s inspiring and beautiful photographs.
This is a story that has never been told. It is a story that will appeal to the novice and the expert alike. »

Hardcover book – 256 pages – Publisher: Jacqui Small LLP – ISBN: 978-1906417994

The September 12, 2013 edition of the Wall Street Journal puts the focus on Calvados :

Titled Calvados’s Warm Charm – Have an apple-y ever after fall with this popular Normandy digestif, the article is a nice introduction to Calvados. Will Lyons quotes Jérôme Dupont and the graphics displays (and presents) two Dupont Calvados (VSOP and Vintage 1997).

>> Read the article on the Wall Street Journal website …
(click on View Graphics to read a full presentation of the Calvados)

Bill Bradshaw is an english photographer and also a cider lover.  In his blog  IAMCIDER, he displays nice photos related to cider and apples. During the fall 2012, Bill Bradshaw came to Normandy to visit Domaine Dupont and a few other estates :

« My first visit was to Domaine Dupont. Dupont’s ciders are well known outside France and for good reason. They embrace the traditional way of making a typically Norman cider yet do it with panache. Unusually, they also embrace modern thinking and really try to push the boundaries of what you can get from your apples… »
Read more and see the pictures…