Cidre L'Inimitable – Apple Cider

L'Inimitable Cider from 22 Norman apple varieties

L'Inimitable Cider is the dry one among the three Sassy Ciders, pressed from 22 native apple varieties from Normandy. With 5.2% ABV and 30 grams of residual sugar per liter, it is clearly focused on fruit rather than sweetness.

Apple cider from Normandy is to France what country wine is elsewhere, and Maison Sassy’s L'Inimitable comes from Manneville-la-Pipard. 22 native apple varieties come together in the press—sweet, sour, and bitter—because only this blend creates a cider with backbone. The name translates to "The Inimitable."

Apple, hay, and a fine tartness

The nose features ripe apple, followed by a hint of hay and a touch of apple peel, like that left behind after peeling.

On the palate, it is juicy, seedy, and tart-spicy, carried by 5.1 grams of acidity per liter and a perlage that reminds one more of country wine than sparkling wine. The bitter apple varieties give it a slightly tannic pull on the finish, which is precisely what makes it a cider you can serve with a meal.

It sits golden yellow in the glass, with a foam that collapses quickly to make way for fine bubbles. Of its two siblings, it is the least sweet—30 grams of residual sugar compared to 41.9 for the Poiré—and you can taste that from the first sip. In this country, it sometimes seems surprisingly sober if you are used to supermarket cider. Anyone who previously considered cider a sweet drink will change their mind within a single sip.

With a cheese board and Tarte Tatin

This cider enjoys savory company, above all aged cheese, buckwheat galettes, and anything made with brown butter.

The late-afternoon cheese board is its home turf: it pairs very well with Camembert and Comté, as well as with roasted pork with apples, and with a Tarte Tatin, its tartness provides the exact counterpoint to the caramel. Serve it at 6 to 8 degrees, preferably in a bulbous glass, as the aromas need air.

This apple cider is also useful in cooking, for instance for mussels in the pan or a sauce for poultry, where it cuts the heaviness of the cream. Half a 750ml bottle in the pot, the other half in the glass—that is how Norman cuisine has always handled it. If you prefer something fruitier and lighter, reach for the Poiré Le Vertueux pear cider, and you can find more bottles in our cider selection.

22 varieties for one glass

The fact that an apple cider requires so many varieties lies in Normandy itself, where, for centuries, the focus has not been on eating apples, but on cider apples.

Sweet varieties provide the sugar for fermentation, sour ones provide the freshness, and bitter ones provide the tannins and thus the structure; the more precisely these three groups are balanced, the more complex the cider turns out to be. The apples grow around the Château de Sassy, they are pressed at Clos Noirval, and fermentation is stopped early to preserve the fruit and carbonation.

Maison Sassy was founded by two childhood friends, and as Xavier tells it, cider had always been a staple at the family estate. Turning this into a brand in 2014, presented in slim bottles with a label full of self-confidence, has visibly done the Norman cider scene in France a world of good. The house now holds B-Corp certification, and the cider is pressed without concentrates or additives.

"The Inimitable," then. A rather grand name for a bottle that, in the end, you simply open and place between the plates.