Normandy aperitif Pommo – a beginner’s guide

Fresh juice from tart apples, combined with the intense aroma of young apple brandy, calvados, create another completely Normandy drink known as Pommo. After months spent in an oak barrel, this can be a surprising, complex, and unlike anything aperitif. We decided not only to tell you about Pommeau de Normandie and other incarnations of this regional product, but also to express our thoughts on cooking it at home.

Pommeau (fr. Pommeau) is a French aperitif made from a mixture of apple juice and apple brandy (calvados in Normandy and lambige in Brittany). The drink is classified as fortified wine, mistelle (this also includes Pinot de Charente, another mixed drink based on grape juice and brandy), and its preparation technology is called “mutage” (mutage, fortifying wines to preserve their natural sweetness) . After mutage, Pommo is subjected to aging in oak barrels. As a result, it has a strength of 16-18% and a minimum of 69 g / l of residual sugar.

Until 1981, due to an incomprehensible ban, Normandy farmers had to keep Pommo a secret, it was prepared only for personal consumption. After the restrictions were lifted, things got better. In 1982, 15 farmers, who during the 70s were actively engaged in the development of modern technology for the preparation of aperitif, received legal status and founded an official association. Sales grew from 12000 bottles to 150000 bottles in just a couple of years.

Already in 1986, the production of Pommeau began to be controlled by state institutions, and in 1991 the drink received its first AOC (Origin Authenticity Control), Pommeau de Normandie. Its production area is identical to AOC Calvados, as are some of the rules of this appellation, for example, when composing must (not fermented juice), it is mandatory to use cider apples, at least 70% of which must be bitter or bittersweet varieties.

A similar style of aperitif is produced in Brittany as part of the Pommeau de Bretagne AOC (1997), only here the juice is mixed with lambigue, a local relative of Calvados. There is also a third, very young region, Pommeau du Maine AOC, approved in 2009. Pommo from this appellation can only be prepared in the departments of Mayenne (Mayenne) and Main-et-Loire (Main-et-Loire), located south of Normandy in the northern part of the Loire. The apple juice here is blended with local Eaux-de-Vie de Cidre du Maine apple brandy and then aged in oak barrels for a minimum of 21 months, as opposed to a minimum of 14 months for Pommeau de Normandie and Pommeau de Bretagne.

The taste of Pommo is quite complex, worthy of a leisurely savoring from a glass of sherry. He takes most of the aroma from apple juice and barrel. The brandy basically adds strength and balances out the fairly high levels of residual sugar, just like the tannins in the barrel. The taste spectrum can be very wide: from baked apples, dried fruits and various berries, to complex combinations of vanilla, toffee, smoked honey, cocoa, almonds.

Pommo production and reproduction at home

In preparation, Pommeau is quite simple, if not primitive. Pressed juice from a blend of cider apples is mixed with young Calvados, aged in barrel for at least 12 months, in a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. Calvados must have a strength of at least 65%. The mixture is then aged in 400-liter oak barrels from 14 months (from 21 months for Pommeau du Maine AOC) to 4 years and even more.

It doesn’t sound difficult. It remains only to formulate what we heard and saw into a working recipe, backing it up with the experience of our previous research on apple drinks.

Replica of a traditional pommo

How to cook:

Everything related to the selection of apples and the extraction of juice from them can be found in the materials on the preparation of cider and calvados (more relevant information in the last article). In short, juice is needed from a mixture of apples of different varieties, preferably with a predominance of tart and sour. It is optimal to use the juice from the press – it initially contains less pulp and clarifies rather quickly. It is better to stand the juice from under the juicer for 1-2 days and only then mix it with apple moonshine.

Brandy can be taken unaged, you can even mute it immediately after its second distillation. They like to do this in the USA, where Pommo is in great demand and many local distilleries have established its production. With young apple spirits, the aperitif is brighter and more intense. Sometimes the juice is allowed to ferment and only then it is stabilized with strong alcohol.

When the mutage has taken place, you can add a little oak to the drink. The use of the barrel is up to you. I think you can get very interesting results when macerating a new cask or, with a clear conscience, finishing off a cooperage product that has already worked enough with distillates, but still retained the fuse (or re-fired).

Oak chips (preferably chips from a trusted source) medium roast seem like a more realistic option. We take about 4 g / l or in the proportions with which you have already worked before, prepare it as it should and add it to the mixture of juice and distillate clarified after 2-3 weeks of settling. You can put it on wood chips right away, but then the pulp in the juice will take on a lot of tannins and wood flavors, but you still have to filter. After 1-3 months Pommo can be eaten.

French speed pommo

For reasons unknown to me, many French people cook it on an accelerated basis. Sugar and honey are added, as I see it, to smooth out flavors and partially neutralize the sharpness of the distillate, which takes months in a cask. Of course, this approach will not add complexity to the drink.

How to do it:

Mix, stir, wait 48 hours and you can serve. Growing up is only good for the drink, but it is better to drink it within 6 months – the taste degrades.

How to drink pommo

Traditionally, Pommeau is served before meals as an aperitif, but it is also good as an accompaniment to dishes, and as an independent digestif, here it’s not for everyone. Ideal serving temperature: +8..+10 ^оC. Glass: tulip, sherry glass, wine glass. In some cafes in Normandy, the drink is served with one ice cube.

Pommo can be stored in hermetically sealed bottles for 1 to 2 years and about 6 months after opening.

Pommo pairs perfectly with blue cheeses, creamy camembert, melon, fresh oysters, sweet and sour Asian dishes, hearty beef. In Normandy, it is also served with all local regional apple pies (savory and sweet) and desserts with chocolate. Many cooks use it to make sauces (for example, deglazing scallops with tomatoes, beef steaks with onions, etc.) and thick creams.

In mixology, the Norman aperitif is not as widely represented as its countrymen, cider and calvados. However, the most popular Pommo cocktail, the “Real Norman”, enjoys recognition not only in the homeland of the drink, but also far beyond its borders.

From simple combinations, the obvious combination of apples and ginger should be distinguished. Mix Pommo with a cocktail version of Paul Clarke’s iberian beer, add a sprig of rosemary to the glass, and you have a balanced, elegant and very simple cocktail, just right for lovers of the Moscow Mule and Dark and Stormy.

When the ideas of new combinations do not come to mind, the classic will always help. Cocktail “Cider Old Fashioned” is drunk like a strong “old-fashioned”, only there is much less alcohol in it, and it is literally permeated with the light energy of summer.

Finally, we have one of the most underrated classic cocktails in the world. Jack Rose is a clever combination of apple brandy, citrus and grenadine. Replace brandy with our aperitif and you’ll get a softer, more balanced version of the legendary cocktail. Grenadine for these cases is better to prepare yourself.

Good luck!