This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
After having been shunned for a long time, Quebec ciders have experienced impressive development over the past 30 years and they hold the upper hand on tables during the sugaring-off season. Among the many variations that can be found are two singular products: ice cider and fire cider. But if the first has been so successful that it has become one of our emblems on an international scale, the second is still struggling to make itself known. What sets them apart and why do they both deserve to be discovered?
The little stories of ice cider and fire cider are both as funny as the other. We owe the invention of ice cider to the French-born winemaker Christian Barthomeuf, who was also the first to make an ice wine in Quebec at the Domaine des Côtes d’Ardoise in Dunham, as he recounts in his book Self-portrait of a rebellious peasant. In 1989, while he was picking frozen Vidal grapes from the vines, he suddenly said to himself, gazing at his neighbour’s orchard: “Why wouldn’t I do the same with apples? »
So he bought her a few crates of apples and put them to freeze on her porch and in her shed for a few weeks, before squeezing them manually. “It was a huge mess! he remembers. I was only able to get about ten liters out of it, but the liqueur obtained the following summer was worth it. Mr. Barthomeuf then refined the development of his invention and in 1992 obtained his first permit to produce sweet cider, which was officially called ice cider from 1996 and quickly conquered the taste buds of Quebecers and their visitors, through multiple creations by cider makers.
Fire cider, for its part, was born… in a kitchen! Normand Lamontagne, its inventor, was a mechanic-welder for the vineyard of L’Orpailleur, also in Dunham, but also passionate about alcohol and patent in the soul. In the early 1990s, he thus had the idea of drawing inspiration from the process of making maple syrup by evaporating the water from the apple juice that he had heated in a saucepan. As the result was interesting, a nearby cider house bought the rights. So much so that, in the 2010s, Union Libre became the pioneer of fire cider, which obtained its appellation in 2012. Until 2022, L’Orpailleur bought Union Libre. “It’s quite amusing to know that this product has somehow returned to its roots”, jokes the winemaker Charles-Henri De Coussergues, owner of this domain, which produces both wines and alcohols based on apples.
Two separate recipes
We must separate ice cider and fire cider, because apart from the apples used to make them, they have nothing in common. The first is based on the concentration of sugars in the apple thanks to the cold. This result is obtained by cryoextraction – the apples are picked frozen on the trees – or by cryoconcentration – the apples are picked and pressed in the fall, and it is their must that spends the winter outside.
Mr. Barthomeuf, owner since 2003 of Clos Saragnat in Frelighsburg, where he produces niche organic wines and ciders, is one of the handful of producers who prefer the cryoextraction method, which is less productive quantitatively but more qualitative. He also uses special varieties of apples, which are not intended for the table, and he ferments the must of frozen apples in small 200-litre vats for three years, which sets him apart from his competitors. “We then obtain an ice cider with a beautiful amber color, with notes of peach, dried apricot, apple compote and tarte tatin”, he explains.
For fire cider, the variety of apples does not matter at the base, because the fact that their juice is heated to boiling and is reduced to 80% causes the loss of the primary aromas of the fruits. To operate this process, we use ripe apples that we press, whose juice we evaporate in sugar bush facilities. Once an apple syrup has been obtained, yeast is added and it is fermented, for a few weeks to a year, at very low temperature in stainless steel vats or in oak barrels that have been used for other alcohols before.
“In the end, you get a product with notes of baked apples, caramel and dried prune,” explains Charles-Henri De Coussergues, who strongly believes in the potential of fire cider, which is less sweet than ice cider. (on average, 80 g of residual sugar per litre, rather than 130 g to 200 g per litre), capable of new experiments and which ages better than its ice cream peer, in its eyes. And this, even if Mr. Barthomeuf produces on his side an ice cider out of age which brings together all his vintages since 2003 and which is very popular with sommeliers.
At the end of these two meetings, we finally remember that ice cider and fire cider are two evolving products that lack neither personality nor seduction. Good tasting !
Other cider suggestions
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.