We have no preconceived plans or ready-made recipes.
We make living ciders that we enjoy drinking and that tell a story of the terroirs or the people.
They are to be enjoyed, as an aperitif or with food, with joy and your senses awakened!
Our mission: reviving and putting a new spin on the cider-making tradition in Burgundy.
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Of fruits, juices, terroirs and people…
Eclectik is a unique cidery by design. In addition to the apples we collect from wild orchards in Beaune or our surroundings, we select and buy apple juices from cidermakers or farmers in several French regions with a rich cider-making tradition like Pays d’Othe, Normandy, Brittany, Perche or Jura,. Freshly-pressed juices are transferred to Beaune to ferment in our cellars with native apple yeasts.
This eclectik and singular approach provides us with an extensive selection of superb juices from dozens of apple varieties, with different flavours, from different terroirs. It’s like having a wide and wonderful palette of colours to paint from.
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Slow and complete fermentation in various types of wines and spirits barrels
In Beaune, we ferment our ciders naturally, with their indigenous yeasts and very slowly during several months, with just the occasional racking, in the coolness of our cellar. Fermentations are complete and our ciders fully dry.
Our singularity comes from our approach: for the fermentation of each cider, we choose the most suitable receptacle according to its aromatic potential and our creative agenda. We take a lot of time (and pleasure!) to look for diversity in our barrels: wines from many terroirs, varietals and appellations (Bourgogne, Jura, Loire, Rhône…), spirits (Armagnac, rhum, French or Scotch whisky, Calvados, Marc or Fine de Bourgogne to name a few)
Provided to us by winemakers or distillers who are also close friends, they have all housed exceptional wines or spirits, and the quality of our ciders owes much of their distinctive character to these barrels.
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Ageing: time & patience
We craft our ciders as you would a fine wine or some specific beers like lambics, with a careful barrel ageing lasting several months. Patience will develop the aromatic complexity and personality of each barrel and therefore each cider.
During the ageing phase, we keep our barrels in a cool atmosphere. We also top-up (ouillage) our barrels very regularly to protect our ciders. This is a delicate period but it is essential to enhance the complexity and mouthfeel of our ciders.
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Blending our cuvées: the joy of creation
After regular tastings and only when we judge the time to be right, we will design our cuvées with a specific combination of barrels. By nature, each year might be different and our ciders will reflect their terroir(s) of origin, the vintage conditions and of course the blend and taste of the barrels they come from.
A cider can just as well be born from one or two barrels (isolated for their terroir of origin or specific tastes), or result from the blend of all regions and all our barrels. Only the final result – and taste – matters to us !
When the inclination takes us, we also produce some limited-edition ciders with the addition of fruit maceration (citrus is our thing!) or hops.
Nothing is defined in advance and meetings with new people always brings food for thought, or drink for thought should we say
After blending, Eclectik ciders are bottled as per the méthode traditionnelle like in Champagne (small addition of yeast and sugar). After a few months, a gentle fizz appears and our ciders are ready to be enjoyed. We may or not disgorge our ciders and most of them are extra brut (no dosage).
