Etienne Dupont - Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie.

The world's best cider?This cider comes from France in corked champagne style bottles. It pours out a clear golden color with minimal head and lacing, but contains prodigious carbonation.
I've been reading alot about traditional cider making, with the goal of making my own this fall. Ciders can often end up with a very high alcohol content because apple juice will ferment out very dry. From my reading, it is not uncommon to have a home made cider finish with a specific gravity under 1.000, that of water. This will give you something like high 7-8 percent abv.
Most ciders you see in the store will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5%. How do they arrive at that?
In the case of French cider it is a process called keeving. The pressed apple juice is allowed to sit, and with the addition of calcium carbonate, the solids that make cider cloudy with both settle out and rise out, leaving a layer of clear juice that is removed and fermented.
Photo from Lost Meadow Cidery.
In this manner, the fermentation will naturally stop itself around 1.010-.015, leaving around 5% abv and a nice sweetness. But alot of ciders have sweetness. How is this different?
There are several methods to get a sweeter cider. First you can kill the yeast to stop the fermentation at the desired level of sugar remaining and force carbonate. Second, ferment, kill the yeast and add a sweetener and force carbonate. Third, take apple juice, add grain alcohol, preservatives, and force carbonate.
I think that most ciders are made in the third method, because most ciders list ingredients on the label. This ciders' label says "unfiltered, unpasteurized cider", which sounds a little more appealing to me than "potassium benzoate added to preserve freshness".
The nose of this cider is all apple, tart and sweet at the same time. There is a bit of wild yeast present as well, though it does not have that distinct brettanomyces smell.
The taste is huge of apples with great carbonation dancing on the tongue. A finish of wild yeast and more apple and a hint of citrus that lingers. Their website says the fermentation is entirely from native yeasts, and it definitely tastes like it.
So is this the best cider in the world? Quite possibly, but the same company also produces a reserve that I had once and found even better. But I think this is the one that people are most likely to find at their well stocked liquor stores. I have only seen the reserve twice thus far.
Next time you are looking for a cider and find yourself looking at Woodchuck, Woodpecker, Strongbow, Ace, etc., look a little farther and spend a little more money and drink the best cider in the world.
My rating: An exceptional product. Seek it out.
Abv: 5%.
Volume: 750 mL/25.4 fl oz.
Website: www.calvados-dupont.com
Price paid: Around 13 at Liquor Land.
Number of cans of Bud Light you could buy for the same price: 20.
For more information on traditional cider making and techniques, please visit Lost Meadow Cider.