“La Vilaine Route des Cidres”, the beautiful story to promote the cider heritage of Ille-et-Vilaine

“La Vilaine Route des Cidres” is the union of around ten cider producers from Ille-et-Vilaine engaged in a peasant production approach, promoting fruit heritage, by offering a gastronomic itinerary, on the model of a wine route.

Since June 2023, several small producers of cider, perry and apple juice based in Ille-et-Vilaine have joined together to promote their fruit heritage. A union of producers driven by Virginie Thomas, ciderology trainer, consultant and apple maker, based in Pléchâtel, leading the following year to the collegial association of “La Vilaine Route des Cidres”. It is inaugurated this Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the Ecomusée de La Bintinais in Rennes, during the Cidre au Pressoir event.

Also read: “We have a large network of creperies”, how did Breton cider dethrone Norman cider?

Why this approach? The figures speak for themselves… In Rennes, we still drank 450 liters of cider per year per inhabitant in 1909. Today, only 10.

Among the members of the project, the Écomusée de la Bintinais saw from its creation, in 1987, the need to preserve local varieties which were disappearing as the orchards of the Rennes basin were felled. No less than 120 varieties of apples populate the conservatory orchards, whether they are intended for juice or for the table.

Also read: Finistère: the pressi-mobile, to avoid losing garden fruits

Member producers, for their part, demand the promotion of the diversity of local varieties, fermentation with native yeasts and natural foaming. They also wish to support other producers in the department in daring to take natural moss through technical days open to all member producers. They are supported in this sense by the cultural center of the Ecomusée de La Bintinais, in Rennes, and by Virginie Thomas, sommelier trainer now specializing in ciders with Bouscule Tes Sens.
They all try together to revitalize the cider heritage in Ille-et-Vilaine, with quality and boundless creativity. Since October 2024, they have all been identified on a map of “La Vilaine
Cider Route.

This project aims to allow local people as well as tourists to build a gastronomic itinerary, while enjoying the places of interest in the department. On the model of a wine route, the territory can boast a real, almost non-existent cidrotourism hub, telling the culinary and tourist history of Upper Brittany.

Members of “La Vilaine Route des Cidres” commit to a charter

• to produce one or more unpasteurized, uncarbonated, 100% pure juice vintages,
• to promote the varieties of local apples gleaned or cultivated in the heart of the Ille-et-Vilaine territory
• to offer one or more authentic ciders with a tangy profile, reflecting the local terroir.

This aims to promote the historic fruit heritage of the region, to highlight the diversity of ciders and perries from the Bretillian territory, in order to create a real cider-making education, and to pass on forgotten historical know-how.

By creating a real cidrotourism hub they hope to help drive rural and local tourism but also to unite producers around a common objective to encourage exchanges, conviviality and develop direct sales and the visibility of producers.

Many actions are already planned: visits to cider houses; creation of a website following cider news; tasting workshops, producers' market and seasonal festive events to exchange with producers across the department.

Technical days (pruning, grafting, choice of varieties, pest control, moss taking, pomological meetings) open to producers and members throughout the year are also planned.

For 2025, a project to raise awareness of cider apple and perry pear juice will be carried out in schools in the department.