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Our Story

Pure juice

Our story

GALIPETTE stems from a long tradition of French cider making. Our apple cooperative is the oldest of its kind in France and brings together hundreds of apple growers across Brittany and Normandy. The members grow and harvest the highest quality cider apples with passion for their craft and a love for their terroir, as these families have done for generations.

Our name describes a joyous leap forward; a ‘forward roll’. Producing French ciders in a contemporary form, made using traditional natural methods that deserve our support, always in thoughtful co-operation with our partners, we hope to bring something new to the world.

A taste for GALIPETTE.

Pure juice

Our home

Our home in Brittany and Normandy is Europe’s orchard. Apple growing here on family-run farms is over a thousand years old, our orchards home to a huge range of cider apple varieties, all grown for the sole purpose of cider-making.

Mild temperatures and frequent rainfall make the land rich; this terroir is ideal for the cultivation of apples. In remote and rugged Brittany, unique apple varieties are grown on schist in coastal orchards swept by Atlantic gales. Lush Normandy, its green sister with a softer maritime climate, grows varieties that bring their own generosity to each assemblage.

No cider country is more naturally gifted.

Pure juice

Pure juice

Our ciders are ‘pur jus’, made from 100% fermented apple juice and never from concentrate. Each year we bottle only what we harvest. Ripe autumn apples gently crushed with skins intact are macerated to bring out all their flavour and to give structure and body to the cider. The pulp is pressed and clarified using a process called keeving that is as old as the orchards themselves.

Following a slow, wild yeast fermentation, our Maître de Chai turns to the art of blending, or assemblage, creating the final cuvée. Finally, Galipette is ready for bottling. That’s it. Nothing is added or taken away. Just 100% natural pur jus; cider that tastes of the apples that make it.

Pure juice. Nature knows best.

Process

The process

Galipette is crafted harnessing the traditions of Northwestern France – a process perfected throughout centuries.

1

Harvesting

Cider apples are picked between September and December. We grow over 200 different apple varieties in the rich soils of Brittany and Normandy for the sole purpose of making our ciders. Each year we bottle only what we harvest.

2

Crushing & Maceration

Crushed whole apples, with skins, are macerated up to 48 hours for full flavour and body. Oxidation of the fruit gives a deeper, richer coloured juice and readies the pulp for slow wild-yeast fermentation by releasing fibre (pectin).

3

Pressing

Pulp-pressing has improved over the centuries but the basic principle is unchanged; we use it to separate the liquid juice from the pomace. Each apple variety is pressed separately and moved into its own cuvée for clarification and fermentation.

4

Clarification

The freshly pressed juice now undergoes a step vital in making each cuvée: clarification. In our traditional French method, ‘keeving’, the “Chapeau Brun” rises to the top, collecting apple pulp fibres and so, enabling the slow, wild fermentation to follow.

5

Fermentation

Our patient wild yeast fermentation converts only part of the fructose into alcohol. The other part preserves sweetness, as well as rich tannins and well-balanced, complex flavour. Usually, each variety is fermented alone. No added sugar or yeast.

6

Blending

Our Maître de Chai now skilfully blends an assemblage unique to each Galipette variant from the fermented juice cuvées of different apple varieties. Pur jus and pure skill create perfectly balanced and distinct ciders. No added water or sugar. Ever.

7

Filtering

Filtered carefully to keep the aromatic richness, cloudiness is removed to create clarity and sharpen the amber hue.

8

Bottling

Bottled in the distinctive brown and slightly round bottles in cold temperature, Galipette becomes ready for enjoyment.

Makers

The Makers

Alain is our Maître du Chai (Cellar Master). Each of his cuvées receives special care from the extraction of the juice to the final maturation that brings out the full quality and intensity of the aromas from fermentation. “Then comes my favourite part; the blend that gives the cider its personality, mixing cuvées made with bitter, bittersweet, sweet and sour apples to yield just the right result”.

Alain

Maître du Chai

Thibault tends a forty-hectare orchard in Pleurtuit, on the banks of the river Rance, founded by his father in 1978. He keeps twenty varieties of apple, two thirds of which are local Breton varieties. Overlooking the Rance, and with a sea view, this is a magnificent place in which to grow apples. ’’It’s the humility towards nature that is the most important trait of an apple grower’’.

Thibault

Grower

Jacques tends 100 hectares of cider orchard near Dinan at the mouth of the river Rance. Within it lies a conservatory orchard he created in 2003, home to 131 heritage varieties, such as the Domaine du Calvados and the Gros Chevalier. “Old varieties of apples from the orchards that have been around for hundreds of years and that we truly want to keep alive”.

Jacques

Grower

Melissa took over 26 hectares of orchard in fertile marshland at Mont-Dol, Brittany six years ago. Her orchard is stocked with twenty varieties of apple, including the local Rouget de Doi, and Marie Ménard. ‘’I love the outdoor life and the panorama that greets me every morning – there is a natural rhythm to this life and it’s the only one for me.’’

Melissa

Grower

Our cidres