Travel Normandy

• Normandy Travel

In addition to the film festival and glamorous red carpet, like a toy town - Deauville, Trouville fish market and the English Channel, elegant museum of old crafts, mysterious rocky and inaccessible island bastion with a charmingly tender called Mont Saint-Michel was much more interesting. And most importantly - I learned in detail how to make the famous Calvados. By tradition it has done without the local harsh Norman Frank

Just about the mystery of the birth of Calvados, as well as about other interesting aspects of travel later in this post:

Very nice hotel Normandy, besieged papparatsi around the clock, it was funny

The view from the rooms. Here you are - La Mash

We lived in Deauville, the famous, such as those that are filmed about love Claude Lelouch's "Man and Woman". Actually our hotel:

In the morning we went to comprehend beautiful :-))

A typical morning for the Normandy landscape:

September, which means somewhere nearby producers of cider apples harvested crop. It turns out when 30% of apple crumble easily when shaking a tree, it means that they are fully ripe. You can still learn about cutting the apple - black sunflower seeds, then ripened crop.

From September 15 to December 15, produced at the plant for extraction of cider production. Apples are washed first, leaves and stones are removed. Then two hydraulic presses (at the plant, which is described in the video at the beginning of the post), squeeze out the juice from 10 tons of apples per hour. Then the juice ferments and the sugars are converted into alcohol. The result is a dry cider, already used for the production of Calvados.

And we arrived at the first of the three is distilled - Lecompte

And here is the secret machine!

Calvados is produced by double distillation. After the first obtain "petite eau", so-called low water. Distill it a second time, and here it is - Calvados.

1st stage distillation of cider.

2500 liters of cider driven into the alembic, and bring to a boil. Pairs rise in the cube helmet. He has a special form in which a heavier pair of left and light out. Light pair are located on the long "swan neck", and then condensed in a cooler (coil), turning at low water.

What happened again driven into the alembic and the whole process is repeated a second time. For 1st liters 20kg apples and required 14 liters of cider. At the output we get Calvados strength of 70 degrees. It's time to pour it on the drums! First on large barrels (up to 55,000 liters !!) for a short time, and then through the small storage until ready.

about the secret joke. The equipment used is similar to that which make brandy. Just instead of wine raw material is cider.

The company we were not small and very soulful. I think many bloggers, here you will learn immediately

But Frank, vigilantly tracking what bloggers crowd wanders from cellar to cellar

The first production was a small cellar and appropriate.

The numbers on the barrel showed its height, the height to which poured Calvados, product fortress in this barrel, and how old he was.

We read, tasted. Liked!

But it is here that produce Secret! (Which some said same .... - Secret!

Calvados Lecompte in the photograph 25 years of aging, and younger. Yet there is a 50 year old!

Let's go on! On the way to come across such a miracle

We are waiting for the second distilled.

Bulyar Calvados (Calvados Boulard) - a family-based production 170 years ago. Since the founding of the company, Pierre-Auguste and gave way to the present day for 5 generations, each of which has contributed to the development of the family business.

Calvados

Family tree Boulard

Higher Mathematics straight!

And that's the same secret. The composition of the assemblage is kept secret, but the age of the alcohol is at least 50 years!

Immediately presented razoblaschayuschie headers in the top LJ "bloggers on tasting minute drank calvados 1000 euros!"

By contrast, modern apparatus for distillation of all farms appear the same

Just one of these cubes can be 3-5, while others - tens.

Details of the old apparatus for distillation and manual press (on the top two photos).

Although the barrel is sealed, some volatile substances evaporate. And believe me, being in the cellar we have felt! It seemed to us that if there walks a day, tasting may no longer be needed :-)))

When we saw this huge cellar with thousands of barrels - just gasped!

Every year, each barrel loses up to 2% of their volume. This so-called "angels share".

Matrix remembered in these series

Funny apples here. Like the big dog rose

But so determined calvados castle in a barrel.

And of course in the sweet - tasting. Including a cool cocktail with calvados Schweppes

tasting some hungry blogger will not

Therefore, we next had a walk at Trouville

This historic fishing village - an excellent place for walking

Fish market in Trouville

My favorite picture from this trip

An interesting tool for exploring

Dinner at Trouville deserves a separate post in the future) it was MorePirshestvo with a capital letter! What tolkone found on this tray. Much I ate and studied there for the first time.

Especially liked the oysters and mussels big and small (like a snail, but snails)

In the morning, a walk through the market, where they sold everything from spectacular hours for 5 euros to cheeses with mold

Moreover, this market was on the embankment of Trouville, where we have already walked. At any other time of day market simply is not there.

So, ahead of the third distillation we arrived at the Pere Magloire, who "keeps the brand" for 200 years.

Wide fame came to drink at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. It was then that the calvados came in first place in sales in France. Leader he remains to this day - both in his native country and in other European countries, where this drink is exported.

At first, we were taken into a chic museum of ancient crafts (detail wrote about him here - Cool museum in Normandy

A collection of irons - it is something!

Again the barrel to the skies

Barrels - a separate issue. 100-year old oaks are used for the production of. Coopers board must first 3 years, then air dried to evaporate the bitter tannins.

In the production of coopers fired from inside the barrel to give the product a smoky flavor

One of the most mysterious and creative processes - blend.

For reference: "The blend, blending (fr. Coupage) - a mixture of starting materials (materials) and taste (or food) supplements taken in a certain ratio is used in the production of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages can talk about blended wines - from wine different.. origin of tea -. in the production of commodity tea as a mixture of teas of different parties, honey, and other similar cases, such as the blend has no relation to the deliberate falsification, dilution or deterioration of quality of the product contrary, the blend is often Eng. sary technological step " cellar master works in a special laboratory. This is comparable to how dozens of different colors to make a chic harmonious and fragrant bouquet.

Extract Calvados achieved by contacting the alcohol with the air penetrating through the pores of oak.

As a result, a colorless liquid at the beginning - in the end it becomes light brown. Oak tannins conveys the drink and its color.

In the photo just shows the changes in 20 years

The final tasting. Beautiful course all heralded!

Pere Magloire produces 1, 2 million bottles per year, 40% is consumed in France, 60% is exported. In this case, the company that buys cider and Calvados produces so much work on the strength of 20 people !!!

Birthday striptease.

It happened in the evening on February 9 at the famous Parisian Moulin Rouge cabaret. All the clothes off her beauty Mona. Indecency Woman arrested and fined 100 francs, which caused protests and riots in the French capital.

And here's a fact, you ask? The fact that the yield from the tasting, I noticed this picture. I asked who this is?

I was told - the same Mona, danced for the first time without a bra at the Moulin Rouge and her autograph to Pierre Magloire.