Pacory 20 Years Old

By Barry Bradford on October 26, 2017 • ( Leave a comment )

Pacory Calvados Domfrontais 20 Ans (40%, OB, 2014)

Category: Calvados Domfrontais
Origin: Frédéric and Catherine Pacory, Ferme des Grimaux
Bottling: Official
ABV: 40%
Cost: £66.56

What they say:

Frédéric PACORY

Our products mirror the hedgerow country in the Domfront area, with its rich heritage of old trees. Their fruit is processed on the family farm with great passion and applying the knowhow that has been handed down.

Les Grimaux Farm has an acreage of 80 Hectares. It is involved in two activities : dairy production and putting our traditional orchards to good use. It has 500 standard pear and 300 apple trees. Since 1959, Mr Claude Pacory has been making and ageing various types of Calvados. In 1989, Catherine and Frédéric Pacory took over from him and carried on the cider-making tradition of the Domfrontais.
In our orchards, the apple and pear trees live for more than 200 years. Although we graft them to select the best varieties, they are then grown without using any chemicals. Under the trees, the grass is grazed by our Normandy cows. From September this grassy carpet breaks the fall of the pears and apples.
This method of growing trees is possible on our farm for having been handed down through the efforts of Claude (father) and Marcel (grandfather). Like Frédéric, they regularly planted new trees, with an eye to the future.
Taste the transformation of our pears and apples grown from this heritage of very old trees. Their fruit is naturally generous !
From the pear we get :
Poiré (perry) (AOC), 4° : a fruity, slightly sparkling beverage, made exclusively by fermenting fruity, slightly sparkling pear juice.
Grim’de poire, 17°: an astute blend of pear juice and Calvados, aged for just a few months to bring out the fruity pear flavour
Pear juice.
From the apple :
Cider 4°: our farmhouse cider brings out the tang of the local soil which is sufficiently fruity with a hint of sharpness.
Pommeau (AOC), 17°: a blend of apple juice and Calvados, aged for at least eighteen months in oak casks.
Apple juice.From both fruits :
Calvados Domfrontais (AOC) : aged and matured by us in the Grimeaux cellars.Our products are available anywhere in France, at wine stores and delicatessens. Feel free to contact us for an address close to you.
If you are staying in Normandy we would be delighted to welcome you. You will discover our orchards, our pressing equipment, the ageing cellars, and of course our products !Summer and winter opening times : daily except Sunday, from 9.00 to 12.30 and from 14.00 to 18.30

Address

61350
MANTILLY

Contact

Nom: Catherine et Frédéric PACORY
Telephone: 02 33 30 12 06
E-Mail: f-et-c.pacory@wanadoo.fr
Website: http://www.pacory.eu

What I say

One of the next places on my wish list of place to visit is the Ferme des Grimaux home of the Domaine du Pacory. A stones throw from the road between Le Teilleul and Domfront heading towards Mantilly is this traditional farm where the Pacory family have been making Cider, Perry and Calvados for 3 generations since the late 1950’s.

This particular expression is an assemblage of casks that have been aged for a minimum of 20 years, made to the AOC Calvados Domfrontais regulations with inclusion of at least 30% pears.

My tasting notes:

Apperance: Dark bronze brown (16/20), numerous quick and thick oily legs with sparse large tears
Nose: Very sweet and fruity on the nose, lots of esters, apple, peach and pear all feature in a medley of orchard fruits but ripe banana is abundant and some white grape aromas too, tannins follow from the wood, strong black tea, leather, cigar and tobacco leaf, rancio, dunnage warehouse, slightly damp and mossy in places but stays refreshing with the mass of cloying fruit that sticks to the back of the nose and throat.
Taste: Initially quite light bodied and smooth, fruity pear, apple and peach juices followed by a huge oily hit which leads with honey and golden syrup sweetness backed by tannic oak wood, chocolate, walnut, tobacco, treacle toffee, cinder toffee, molasses and caramelised sugar envelop the palate.
Finish: Long, sweet and dry with fruit then tannic old oak, bark and dried cinnamon sticks

Overall

Super-smooth, fruit juice then wood carried on oils, full of herbal tannins and utterly delicious – this reminded me of eating apple sauce before a mouthful of sage-wrapped roast pork – that brilliant combination of flavours that whilst strong all work so well together and somehow become greater than the sum of its parts.