The Champagne of Cider
5/2/25 -
New to the shelves here at Chambers Street Wines are some incredible, terroir driven, ciders all grown and made within Champagne. Clémence Egly alongside her fiancé Victor Bouvy, as well as Marianne and her brother Jean-François Gamet have made some incredibly compelling ciders that I am trilled to offer today! As the days get longer and warmer, these ciders can be the perfect accompaniment to enjoy outdoors at a picnic or by the pool. These are fresh, light in alcohol and complex while still being crushable and incredibly food friendly!
Upon a recent trip to Champagne for the Skurnik team, Clémence Egly asked if the they wanted to taste the first release of Cidre Bouvy, a cider made by herself and her fiance Victor Bouvy. After trying this cider myself just a week ago I completely understand why they immediately brought it in! Victor Bouvy is the 4th generation to run his family's farm in Mount-Sur-Corville which is between the Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne. The family had been farming organically since 2015, but prior to 2019 the Bouvy family was cultivating apples for table consumption, but when Victor took over the orchard, he and Clémence planted apples that were ideal for making cider on their chalky terroir.
After harvesting, all the apples are kept in crates until January when they press. Primary fermentation is carried out in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeast. Before the fermentation is completed, the cider is bottled under crown cap to finish. The 2022 vintage is the inaugural release of this incredible new cider! This was one of the most vinous ciders I have had the pleasure of tasting. It contains incredible balance, and a nice rich, brioche-salty quality to it. You are going to want to stock up on this Cider for summer!
Since 2018 Marianne Gamet has been leading the family domaine as the 4th generation. During harvest, blending and bottling, her brother Jean-François (a trained enologist working in Bordeaux) assists her. The two produce an excellent array of ciders together with fairly small quantities. Marianne has talked about how, "The idea is to continue working on the Champagne side, as something artisanal, to keep the philosophy of recoltant manipulant, improving techniques in vinification and the cellar, but we also continue to develop on the farm side, since we were farmers from the beginning. We continue on this side with cider, honey, and cereals. The idea is to become closer with nature and change to do more in the vineyards to protect the environment and the expression of terroir.”
On offer today is their 2023 'Le Cidre' a blend of four different apple varieties that come together to create a bright, fruit, easy drinking cider. In addition to this we have two very rare single varietal ciders one from the Avrolle apple, and the other being from Quince. Within Cider it can be rare to see monovarietal bottlings as traditionally the blending of different apples provides a different quality such as ripeness, and acidity, that when combined create a balanced and well rounded Cider. The Avrolle is full of orchard fruit notes with light and refreshing palette, while the Quince is super unique with notes of tropical fruits like guava and pineapple. The Quince cider is about to be my favorite pairing with cheese. These two monovarietal ciders are incredibly limited so snag some while you can!
-Hanna Krilov
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