Ontario wines to star in Preece fundraiser
There are ways to warm winter. And, in this case, make a difference.
The Mark Preece Family House is hosting its annual Wine Winter Warmer fundraiser on Jan. 26 (7 p.m.) at the Hamilton Golf Country Club in Ancaster.
The evening features a casual tasting of more than 30 wines from Ontario and around the world, many of which are not normally available here, as well as a cheese table and hors d’oeuvres.
All proceeds from Wine Winter Warmer go to support operations of The Mark Preece Family House, a “home away from home” for families of critical-care patients undergoing treatment at Hamilton’s hospitals.
Tickets cost $125 each (a tax receipt is available for a portion of the cost) and are available by calling 905-529-0770, or by email at info@markpreecehouse.ca.
Richard Prevel juggles apples for a living. He doesn’t toss them in the air, though. His juggling instead is a balancing of the different qualities of apples to make Calvados Boulard, where he is “master chef of the caves.”
Calvados is the famous apple brandy of Normandy, a spirit that most Canadian consumers have heard of but surprisingly few have actually tried. Prevel visited recently in part to try to correct that.
Fortunately, he has an excellent product to show people.
“The challenge is to control the aromatics of the apples and the quality of the cider Calvados is made from,” Prevel says. “I’m looking for how they will change after distillation.”
Prevel chooses from among some 100 varieties of apples — most of which we’ve never heard of on this side of the Atlantic — to make Calvados Boulard, and makes decisions based on four basic characteristics: he needs bittersweet apples to provide aromatics and lots of juice; bitter apples give tannin and tartness; acidic apples (about 10 per cent of total volume) to impart freshness; and sweet apples for sugar and potential alcohol to the finished product.
The varieties are pressed separately and made into low-alcohol, highly acidic cider using natural yeasts. Prevel then selects and blends them. The mixed cider is then distilled twice, in a process very similar to making whisky, keeping the heart or best part of each distillation. That is an exacting process, as less than a third of the first distillation is of sufficient quality to go on to become Calvados. The pure finished eau-de-vie, which emerges at about 70 per cent alcohol, then goes into barrels to begin an aging and mellowing process that must under French law last at least two years, but in some cases continues for decades.
The bottom line when you buy Calvados Boulard: That single bottle was originally 12 to 14 kilos (26 to 30 pounds) of fresh apples. Prevel personally signs off on the quality of every batch of Calvados he supervises. “I want to re-establish the image of the quality of Calvados,” he says. “The image has been that of a country spirit.”
Boulard is a big producer, and is highly regarded around the world as one of the best. While apple brandy, sometimes called “applejack,” is made all over Normandy, there are certain specific and legally controlled appellations within the region. Boulard concentrates on the Pays d’Auge, widely considered the best appellation for Calvados, an area that stretches about 40 kilometres inland from the English Channel between Caen and where the Seine empties into the sea south of Le Havre. Only a third of all Calvados can claim this designation.
Prevel and I tasted several grades of Boulard Calvados, an exercise that underscores how good, how subtle, this spirit can be.
Calvados Boulard Grand Solage ($48.70, code 296228) is a great introduction to the spirit. The components are between two and five years old, and the Calvados is fresh and delicate on the surface but has quite a complex character. The initial impression is of fresh, roasted and dried apples, as you might imagine, but then other flavours kick in — apricots, pears, cherries, lavender, spice.
Calvados is best drunk neat and at room temperature, I think, at the end of a filling meal (some call this the “trou Normande” or Norman Hole because of the way a shot lightens the stomach). But it can also be served on the rocks, or mixed with some tonic water or ginger ale.
An upscale XO offering from Boulard is currently before the LCBO for consideration for the Vintages section, but even if things move smoothly we won’t see it until next Christmas at the earliest.
One that you can get now through special order is a recent creation, the Boulard XO Auguste. The Boulard family asked Prevel to make a special blend to honour Pierre-Auguste Boulard, the man who founded the company in 1825. What Prevel made is truly magnificent, a blend involving Calvados between 10 and 35 years old, immensely complex and layered, with an apple peel and apple blossom background. It has a full-bodied, rich and silky feel in the mouth, there’s a distinct floral perfume in the back of your throat, and there are nuances of caramel and butterscotch.
You can order XO Auguste by the single bottle (decanter, actually), price $250 (hey, consider what you’d pay for 35-year-old Cognac). Call Todd McDonald at Peter Mielzynski Agencies, 905-257-2116, ext. 316.
dkislenko@thespec.com
905-526-3450
