Le Pere Jules Sparkling Dry Cider

The Le Pere Jules Sparkling Dry Cider presents boldly: a deep amber with persistent, boisterous bubbles. Dusty jasmine, red and brown apples and leatherwood honey rise as a perfume, the taste is dense, appley and spicy at once with texture and the clean cut of apple skin, an effortless blending of textural sensations with the creamy Président Camembert.

Some ciders are slick, clean and made for a New World palate, offering too much acidity with little complexity. Some present an Old World interpretation taking you down some stinky, tannic roads and in no particular direction. Neither style sings with cheese.

A clean, gentle cider from Normandy, however, does a lovely job. Perfect almost. Leon Desfrieches and Sons is a name closely associated with Calvados but when not distilling apples for brandy, the family has other plans for the fruit namely, cidre de Normandie.

Their Le Pere Jules sparkling dry cider possibly benefits from the fact that the Desfrieches family grows a full range of apple varieties, from sweet to sour, to blend together for their brandy. It works well, too, for cider.

The flavours of sparkling dry cider are sympathetic to those of the creamy camembert, a meeting, if you like, of similar minds.