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Lesuffleur
Paris during the week, Normandy at weekends: Benoit Lesuffleur leads a double life that shapes his cider. As a wine agent he represents houses such as Tarlant and Fourrier, but his passion belongs to his family's apple trees in the Pays d'Auge. Since 2012 he has been turning this experience into ciders of remarkable precision. Three years on the lees, spontaneous fermentation, biodynamic farming on chalk and flint soils. Cows graze among hundred-year-old standard trees. His ciders appear on the lists of L'Arpège and NOMA, places where enjoyment becomes discovery. Only 15,000 bottles a year, each one an expression of a quiet revolution.
More about Lesuffleur
The wine agent who makes cider
To understand Benoit Lesuffleur, you have to know his diary: Monday to Friday he is in Paris, visiting sommeliers and restaurants and representing some of France's finest estates, among them Tarlant in Champagne. On Friday evening he boards the train to Caen. What he has learned from the winemakers, the importance of terroir, precision in the cellar, patience in the élevage, he applies to his family's cider-making.
His grandfather Roger was the first Lesuffleur to sell cider commercially. His father Gilbert planted new orchards at La Folletière in 1996. Benoit himself returned in 2012 to reinterpret the family's work. The inspiration came from Tarlant: if Champagne can be made like this, why not cider?
Two soils, two characters
The domaine's 20 hectares are split between two distinct sites. At La Folletière, low-trunk trees over brown flint and chalk predominate; this is where the apples grow for the Cuvée La Folletière of the same name. The Friardel orchard, by contrast, is home to ancient standard trees, some more than a hundred years old: only 100 to 150 trees per hectare, rooted in blue flint. The Cuvée Friardel carries this depth in every bottle.
Benoit has farmed organically since 2012, using biodynamic practices. Cows from his parents' farm graze seasonally among the trees, and beehives encourage biodiversity. No chemical interventions that might level out the differences between the soils.
Three generations in one glass
More than 25 historic apple varieties grow on the domaine: Mettais, Fréquin, Rambeau, Bedan, Binet Rouge. The cuvées follow a precise logic: sharp varieties for freshness, bittersweet ones for fullness, tannic ones for structure. Only the best ten per cent of the fruit makes it into the bottles.
The Pyrrhus cuvée tells a family story: one third comes from grandfather Roger's favourite bitter variety, one third from father Gilbert's sharp one, and one third from Benoit's own bittersweet preference. A synthesis of three generations' tastes in one glass.
Patience as a method
After the harvest, with every apple checked by hand, the juice ferments spontaneously with wild yeasts. The traditional keeving method slows the fermentation. Then comes the méthode ancestrale: fermentation in bottle without added sugar. What follows sets Lesuffleur apart from almost everyone else: at least three years on the lees, a span of time that even ambitious Champagne houses would respect.
Disgorgement is done by hand. The limited quantities, only 15,000 bottles a year, are a consequence of the method. The Cerqueux Poiré, made from pears grown on his uncle's land, bears the same signature. Ciders and poirés that prove this drink can be far more than a nostalgic accompaniment to galettes.