2020 Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie with pork loin in a calvados cream sauce

Did you know France is on track to beat out Spain as the most visited country in the world– and the charming coastal towns of Normandy is one of the reasons?  (Of course I’m partial to Italy where I am right now!) Recognized today as an important and decisive battleground during World War, Normandy and D Day will be commemorated by the French Winophiles writers in our June Winophiles event. Scroll down for links to participants; a twitter chat is scheduled for Saturday June 17 at 8am Pacific. 

While D Day may seem recent to some and ancient history to others, what I found fascinating recently about the region was even more ancient history: Europe’s Oldest Map Shows a Tiny Bronze Age Kingdom there! The Saint-Bélec slab, a map of the area, languished unrecognized in a castle basement for over a century, according to the article. “This is the earliest known example in Europe of a map for which we can identify the territory it depicts. The slab was engraved in the early Bronze Age (2150–1600 B.C.), which makes it contemporaneous with the Nebra Sky Disk, a map of the cosmos discovered in Germany (but not conclusively identified with any particular constellations).”

I would journey there just to see this even though the region produces very little wine. Normandy is really more about apples, so when we couldn’t acquire a wine made from grapes, we went with a favorite of Sue’s, an organic cider paired with pork loin prepared in a calvados cream sauce with apples. 

And since I’m busy with Day 16 of 21 days of wine travel in Italy, (read more here about Lazio and here about wine and cheese pairings in Italy and in California) and I’m currently staying at The Nest in Maremma hosted by La Maliosa for three nights, (after one night in Bologna, five in Soave, five in Abruzzo and three in Rome), I’ll cut to the chase and get right to the tasting notes of this cider from Normandy! 

Menu

• Pork loin with apples and calvados 
• Gnocci with a fontina sauce 
• Green salad 
• we planned to do a baked camembert with apples and that would have been great but decided we had plenty of rich food already!

2020 Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie

2020 Etienne Dupont Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie

ABV: 5.5%
SRP: I think Sue bought this at Whole Foods for around $5
Grapes: Apples

Appearance:  Very golden, yellow gold, like sunlight, 

Aroma: Spiced apple, spiced apple cider, none of the alcohol is there, cinnamon and clove, fresh apples,

Palate: Clean and fresh with the lovely baking spices on the finish, this is not a sweet cider yet has all of the fruit and flavors that you would want in a cider. like biting into a fresh fuji apple dusted with fresh ground cinnamon. 

Pairing: We did not make a baked camembert with apple slices and honey that we were thinking about doing, upon tasting the cider we realized how great it would have been as a pairing. The sweet and savory profile of the dish goes so nicely with the bright tart apple in the wine. There is a bit of sweetness to both the meal and the wine yet neither the wine and or the meal seem sweet. 

For more about Normandy, check out: 

• Jeff of FoodWineClick shares “A Weekend of Food, Drink and History in Normandie”
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator serves up “Organic Normandy Cider with Calvados Cream Pork Loin”
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm is “Remembering D Day with the Normandy 44 Cocktail”
• Susannah of Avvinare is “Remembering Two Trips to Normandy & Sipping Calvados”
• Camilla of Culinary Cam talks about “When a Norseman Meets a Burgundian in Wine School”

I’ll try to add the recipe from Sue or a link to it when I get a chance. It was really good!