Review of Manoir de Grandouet AOP Pays d’Auge Cidre. It is my first time trying this one, but I previously tried Manoir de Grandouet’s Cidre Fermier Brut and have tried many other French ciders, such as these.
>>This is a review of a sample bottle provided to Cider Says by Winesellers, Ltd. Although I will take care to treat it the same as any other review, there is always the potential for bias as I received it for free. The only consideration I knowingly made was pushing this up in my cider review cue. I love free stuff, especially cider! Want your cider or cider-related product reviewed here? Contact me.<<
Cider: AOP Pays d’Auge Cidre
Cidery: Manoir de Grandouet
Cidery Location: Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France
ABV: 4.5%
How Supplied: corked & caged champagne bottle
Style: Norman French cidre
Availability: Semi wide release in the U.S. through Winesellers, Ltd. Their cider portfolio also includes Le Brun, Domaine de la Minotiere, & Cidrerie Daufresne from France, Dunkertons from England, and Sidra Asturiana Mayador from Spain. Or, if you are lucky enough to live in France, the Grandouet cidery’s website has a cider locator.
Cider Description: This bottle conditioned, AOP Pays d’Auge cidre is made in the most traditional cidre-making process. As a result, it is a very complex and natural product with aromas of baked apples, pears and other white stone fruit supported by complex notes of barnyard with dried herbs and leather. It presents a very slight bitterness and crisp acidity that helps dry out the cider on the finish.
Cidery Description: Grandouet is located in the heart of Pays d’Auge at 2 km from the village of Cambremer on the “Route du Cidre”. The terroir and the climate make it a privileged site for cider products. In this typical farm of the Pays d’Auge, dedicated to apple and milk AOC, the production remains faithful to the traditions and know-how transmitted to the Grandval family for three generations.
It is amazing how old and generational many French cideries are! Their website has more info on their family cidermaking history (it is in French, but the Chrome browser at least has a translate option, at the right side of the web address area).
Price: n/a (retails for ~ $13)
Where Bought: n/a
Where Drank: home
How Found: the importer contacted me
First Impression: Light orange amber hue. High carbonation with foam. Smells of funk, must, and a hint of sweet bittersweet apple.
Tasting Notes: Semi-dry. Light bodied with a fluffy fizzy texture. Low tartness. Moderate acidity. Low tannins. Low funk. Hints of bitterness. No sourness. Notes of bittersweet apple pomace and juice, orange, caramel, leather, earth, and must. Moderate length finish. Moderate apple flavor. Moderate to high sessionability, complexity, and flavor intensity.
My Opinion: Awesome! I wish I would have tasted this side by side with their Cidre Fermier Brut though, as with my notes from a couple weeks ago, I’m not identifying too many differences between the two. This one may be a bit smoother and less bitter.
Most Similar to: Manoir de Grandouet Cidre Fermier Brut, L’Hermitiére Cidre Brut, Manoir De Montreuil Cambremer, and Christian Drouin Pays d’Auge.
Closing Notes: I have one more French cider from Winesellers, Ltd. left to try.
Have you tried French cidre? What did you think?
Cider Says 
I found a cider ship in Portland that will let me skip the $25 charge from Seattle. https://theplacepdx.com/
I’ve ordered a bottle of this and one of Alpenfire Ember. Looking forward to them!
Thanks again for this great — unique — site.
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I’m drinking it now. I find it interesting and likeable, though I’m beginning to understand, I like my cider a bit drier than you do. This is a little sweet for me, but I’m glad I tried it. Great finish! Perhaps the low ABV makes me more aware of the sweetness.
Still looking for that elusive cider, as dry as a good sauvignon blanc. The search is most enjoyable.
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Mike – French ciders usually run sweeter. I’ve probably only had 1 or 2 I’d actually call nearly dry (like https://cidersays.com/2017/11/29/herout-aoc-cotentin-extra-brut/). Now I’m curious which ones you’ve had before which you thought were much drier than this one. For truly dry ciders which you can get shipped, try some like these:
Eden – nearly all of their non ice ciders – https://www.edenciders.com/store/
Eve’s Cidery – Albee Hill, Northern Spy, & Beckhorn Hollow – https://www.evescidery.com/ourcider/
Farnum Hill – probably all varieties – https://farnumhillciders.com/shop
Alpenfire – Pirate’s Plank, Flame, Traditional Cuvee, & Discovery Trail – https://www.alpenfirecider.com/store
Westcott Bay – Dry – https://www.westcottbaycider.com/order.html
Dragon’s Head – Manchurian Crabapple & Heritage – https://www.dragonsheadcider.com/store/
I’ve reviewed many of them here; see https://cidersays.com/ciders-ive-tried/ for a nice directory of all my reviews listed by cidery (I checked the ones I listed above are currently being sold).
Press Then Press (https://press-then-press-llc.myshopify.com) has some of these, which is a big advantage as then you only pay 1 shipping cost for ciders from multiple cideries. Shop Ciders (https://shopciders.com/) is another great resource, but the ciders ship directly from each cidery, so no combining shipping. For high quality dry ciders you’ll be looking more towards heritage ciders, which are typically: orchard based, made from cider-specific (vs. common eating) apples, without fruit/spices/hops/etc, and in large format bottles. Cheers!
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Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll certainly try some.
Which drier ciders have I had? I am trying to find something reminiscent of the cider we drank at a small restaurant in Lorient, Brittany, about 25 years ago. It was a local specialty, served in a jug, not a bottle, and I just loved it.
For a dozen years after, we lived in a small rural town, and trying to get something similar never occurred to me. Then we moved to Portland, and I started exploring beer. Now (with covid), I’m ordering for pickup, and I saw craft ciders on the merchant’s list. That started me on my current exploration (and enjoyment).
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Mike – Interesting! Brittany ciders usually tend sweeter (vs. Normandy) too. But I’ve only had whatever gets imported into the U.S., which despite me having tried dozens of them may not be completely representative of what is produced there as a whole. Here is a link which groups most of my French cider reviews in case its helpful (keep scrolling to load more): https://cidersays.com/tag/french-cider/
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