Enough with the cheese, tell me about the booze.
Like the A o C cheeses, the five beverages of Normandy that have received that designation are closely related. They are: Calvados, Calvados Pays d’Auge, Calvados Domfrontais, Pays d’Auge, and Pommeau de Normandie. The first three are apple brandies, Pays d’Auge is cider and the lasts is pommeau (a mixture of apple juice and apple brandy).
It’s possible that the fermentation of drinks made from apples in Normandy predates the Common Era. The Greek geographer and traveler Strabo (64/63 BC- 24 AD) writes of the profusion of apple trees in the region and describes a drink he called “zythos,” which seems to be a precursor of cider. Charlemagne (742-814) boosted the cider industry by issuing standing orders for brewers to continuously provide him with cider. The region grows more than 800 varieties of apples.
But let’s start at the end of a meal with Calvados which is both a serious drink and a serious matter. It received its A o C designation in 1942 meaning that while apple brandy can be made anywhere, Calvados can only be produced in Normandy.
(Calvados is also the name of a départment in Normandy. A départment is one of the four levels of French government. These are the nationale, the région, the départment and the commune. Normandy is one of 12 régions on the mainland of France that together with the island of Corsica comprise the 13 métropolitain régions. In addition, there are five overseas régions.
Each metropolitan région is divided into as few as two or as many as 13 départments. Calvados is one of five départments in Normandy.
For Americans, the nationale equates to the federal government, the région would be similar to the state government, the départment to a county, and the commune the local city or town. Keep in mind that while they’re analogous, they’re not equivalent.)
Officially, Calvados (the brandy) is classified as a digestif and considered best sipped solo after dinner. It’s distilled using the same method as cognac. The distillation process uses a copper double still. The juice is drawn and left to age in casks for 1-2 years. At the end of that time, it’s distilled again and is then left to age in oak casks. The second distillation increases the alcohol content from about 28 percent to something on the order of 40 percent. Calvados must be aged for a minimum of two years and has, in some instances, been aged longer than 50 years. Forty percent alcohol is 30 to 35 percent more than I generally like.
Easing up on the alcohol content and moving to the beginning of a meal, we come to pommeau. Officially an aperitif, pommeau combines two parts unfermented apple juice with one-part single distilled Calvados. After being mixed in large vats, pommeau is then aged for between 14 and 48 months in oak barrels. When it’s ready, the finished product is considerably stronger than wine – about 16%-18% alcohol. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t drink any of the amber colored beverage. I was told by those who did, however, that it had notes of cooked fruit, vanilla, and honey.
So what did you drink?
I’m glad you asked. Actually, our hosts were kind enough to provide two drinks I happily imbibed – Cidre (Cider) and Poiré (Perry). The former is made from apples and the latter from pears.
Let’s start with the good news. Because it’s low in alcohol, cider is perfect to drink anytime. There are three main types of cider: Cidre Doux (sweet cider), generally about 3% alcohol, Cidre Demi-Sec (semi-sweet), generally about 3-5% alcohol and Cidre Brut (dry cider), starting at four-and-a-half percent alcohol and increasing from there. Sweet cider isn’t particularly common.
Ciders produced in Normandy typically use bittersweet and bitter apples rather than dessert apples. The juice ferments in a keeve (a tub or vat for holding liquid, especially in brewing). This creates a relatively long and slow fermentation process that, in combination with the apples used, produces a balanced and deep sweet flavor.
Traditionally named Poiré, pear cider is another alcoholic drink made through fermentation, but it uses pears instead of apples. The oldest known place for pear cider creation is in Domfrontais where some of the pear trees used are over 300 years old.
According to written evidence from Saint-Jérôme, who referred to a fermented drink called “Piracium”, it appears that the origins of Poiré date at least as far back as the 4th century. This makes sense because evidence suggests that pear trees predated the cultivation of apple trees in Normandy by several centuries. About 10 varieties of pears can be used in the production of Poiré.
While I can’t describe the sensation of the two drinks in any depth, my recollection is that the Poiré was a bit sweeter than the Cidre and that the carbonation was subtler.
But wait, there’s more.
Yes, there’s more and I don’t mean dinner. While we (and by we I mean the entire Performance Today group) were all out gallivanting about Rouen and working off our midday mussels, Jie and Tim were behind on the ship rehearsing because what would a night on the ship be without yet another Perf Chat.
At this point I have to acknowledge that the shipboard Perf Chats were moments of pure enjoyment for me. I paid close attention in the moment but gave no thought to how I might report on them in this journal. On this night, I have some recollection that much of the chat was about the music, why they’d chosen to play these particular compositions or arrangements, and their personal relationship with the music. I can tell you what they played (thanks to Fred and Amy who sent emails with the play lists) but little more than that.
They opened with another composition by Debussy – the Sonata for Cello and Piano. Composed in 1915 and clocking in at a brief 11 minutes, the piece makes great technical demands on the cellist. The monothematic style that Debussy uses is closer in structure to a sonata that might have been composed in the 18th century than in the twentieth and exemplifies how he’d become a very different composer from the man who wrote the more impressionistic piece we heard Jie play in Paris.
The second performance by Jie and Tim was Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne that the composer arranged for piano and cello with Gregor Piatigorsky – one of the great virtuoso cellists of the 20th century.
In his ballet Pulcinella, Stravinsky had, in 21st century parlance, sampled the works of the early eighteenth-century Italian composer Giambattista Pergolesi. He then cut, altered, and transformed the music into his own style to complete the ballet.
The Suite Italienne was not his first attempt to transform some of the numbers from the ballet into a work for solo string instrument and piano. In 1925, he wrote a Suite for violin and piano. Then in 1932, he and Piatigorsky re-worked the earlier Suite into the Suite Italienne for cello and piano.
This is Stravinsky’s only work for piano and cello and it’s one of my favorites. It’s just short of 20 minutes.
Jie played excerpts from the composition she’d begun and made it quite clear to Fred that she wanted no help with the title. Of course, before the cruise was over, I’d make a pert but (im?)pertinent suggestion in that regard. For now, I’ll continue to bask in the warmth of the Stravinsky as I did that Saturday night and hope you do the same as you listen to the music in the videos.