Rosé Cider La Sulfureuse

La Sulfureuse Rosé Cider from red-fleshed apples

The La Sulfureuse Rosé Cider doesn't get its color from a dye pot, but from apples that are already red inside. At 3% ABV, it is the lightest of the three Sassy ciders and, at the same time, the fruitiest.

Rosé Cider is a pink apple sparkling wine, and the La Sulfureuse from Maison Sassy is made from red-fleshed apple varieties that grow around the Château de Sassy in Normandy. Their flesh is pink down to the core, and because the juice runs pink from the press, this cider does not need skin maceration like a rosé wine. La Sulfureuse translates roughly to "the provocative one."

Salmon-pink in the glass and lots of red apple

In the glass, it shimmers between salmon-pink and dusty rose, just like a summer evening shortly after the sun has disappeared behind the dike. Held against the light, this turns into a bright, clear red with a hint of copper.

On the nose, there is red apple, along with a little raspberry and a touch of rhubarb. On the palate, it is floral, fruity, and zesty, and with 7.5 grams of acidity per liter, it carries the most freshness of the three, even though, with 45 grams of residual sugar, it is also the sweetest.

Precisely this tension is what defines it: the acidity catches the sweetness before it becomes cloying, and the fine mousse lifts both. At 3% ABV, it drinks so easily that you can pour a glass at lunchtime without the afternoon suffering for it. One glass has about as much alcohol as a shandy and significantly more to say.

As an aperitif on the terrace

The Rosé likes company and sunlight, less so the formal dinner table, and it is the entry-level cider for anyone who has previously eyed apple wine with suspicion.

Well-chilled at 6 degrees, it is ready as an aperitif, alongside a covered apple pie with cream or a bowl of strawberries. It also goes well with mild goat cheese and a salad with walnuts and pear, and those who want to dilute it in summer can add ice and a slice of lime.

Because it comes with the pink bottle, it is also the one you bring along when you are invited and don't know what is being served. On a summer table, it cuts a very unique figure next to water carafes and white wine, without stealing the show from anyone. Things get tarter with the Cidre L'Inimitable, and pear-forward with the Poiré Le Vertueux.

Why these apples are red inside

Red-fleshed apple varieties are a rarity in Normandy, as they yield less than common cider apples and are planted almost exclusively for cider.

Their pigment permeates the entire flesh down to the core, which is why the must brings its color along naturally and no one has to lend a hand. It is pressed at Clos Noirval near Manneville-la-Pipard, without concentrate and without additives, and fermentation is stopped early so that the fruit and carbonation reach the glass. What ferments loses sugar, and whoever stops at 3% ABV, as is the case here, retains it.

Behind Maison Sassy are two childhood friends from Normandy who started in 2014, and as Pierre-Emmanuel tells it, the two wanted to bring cider out of the niche it had long occupied in France. The Rosé was the piece with which they could most clearly stir things up, and the name says as much. The company is now B-Corp certified.

The provocative one. A bit coquettish for an apple wine. But it suits her well.