Cidre Sauvageon

One of the few cideries operating out of a city, in this case an industrial stretch of Ahuntsic, where Pauline Macera and Raphaël Lefort work from a unit at the Centrale agricole, Quebec’s largest urban agriculture co-op. Both trained in viticulture and oenology in Burgundy and spent time with organic and biodynamic growers in France and Quebec before turning to apples. Their fruit comes from an experimental orchard next to the Ruban Bleu cheese dairy in Mercier, planted by Jean-François Hébert with roughly 150 heirloom apple varieties plus pears, plums, currants, gooseberries, sea buckthorn and quince. The ciders are natural, including single-fruit bottlings and co-ferments, with two organic orchards supplying downgraded and deer-run apples that would otherwise go to waste. Sold online and through shops and restaurants around the province.