Domaine Lesuffleur Cerqueux (pear) 2020 (1x75cl)

The wild card: a sparkling pear cider from a single orchard in the village of Cerqueux — the uncle's high-branch trees, replanted and overgrafted in 1994 around one survivor, a Grise de Lisieux pear tree more than a century old.

Some of the trees are so old nobody is sure of every variety they carry. Pressed and bottled by gravity, it comes out taut and delicate, closer to a blanc de blancs than to any cider you know.

• Blend: De Curé, Petit Blot, De Cloche, De Branche, Grise de Lisieux and undetermined old varieties
• Farming: organic practice, not certified
• Method: hand-picked and twice-selected pears, indigenous yeasts, keeving; fermentation finished in bottle, ancestral method
• Ageing: 24+ months on fine lees in bottle; disgorged Mar 2025
• Style: fine, precise, citrus-edged — oysters, sashimi, or simply as the aperitif

5.5% vol · 750 ml · contains sulfites