8 native pears with different tannic and wild varieties including Gelbmostler, lemon pear. This is something special, Pear eau de vie, a pear pie baking in the oven: Dry tasting with incredibly delicate bubbles. Again the saltiness of sparkling water (Chateldon?). Elegant, pristine, bright and very enchanting.

The first taste of a Vulcain cider will usually cause disbelief. They are so… pretty! And so different.

Dry to moderately sweet, with a discreet salty finish, the different blends or individual varieties speak so clearly yet so delicately —watercolors, not oil paintings. Essentially, these ciders are unmistakably Alpine: at their core is transparency, levity, and altitude; the same cool wind that runs through most Alpine wines; the freshness of a mountain stream.

And they stand apart, different from French or Basque ciders, with less to none of that animal, fermentive character.

Jacques Perritaz, the man behind La Cidrerie du Vulcain, works exclusively with the local orchard fruits of Fribourg: ancient varieties of apples, pears and quinces grown on high-branched, untreated trees. The Fribourg terroir, with its cool climate and diverse soils, provides for beautiful nuances in the aromatic expression of the Vulcain ciders, an effect that is only enhanced by the old age of the high-branched trees.

The fruit is bought directly from the producers, and Jacques often harvests himself. By creating a buzz and demand for his phenomenal cuvées, the goal is to valorize Fribourg’s older, high-branched orchards that otherwise risk abandonment. Jacques hopes to preserve the inherently rich natural environment of Fribourg that is essential to maintaining biodiversity. This movement has been otherwise promoted by the FSP (Swiss Landscape Foundation). Taken from beckywasserman.com

• Tweet