Rouville Apple

[Feral Jacks]

I was looking around the PRI apple lists of disease resistant apples and found one they discarded because it had a high tannin level, the Rouville apple. Has anyone tried out this apple for cidermaking? WVMJ

[Claude Jolicoeur]

I did have it for a while but I lost it. Never saw the fruit. This is a Quebec-introduced apple of the McIntosh type. However, it is quite early, ripens mid-August, and this makes it probably not very appropriate for cider.
Claude

[77grundy]

Just reviving this thread to see if anyone has come across this apple since the previous posts. A nursery in Quebec owes me a tree and this is their most promising sounding variety for cider with the low acid high tannin described. I'm going to give it a shot regardless, but wondering if there is anyone out there with experience of it beyond the above.
Thanks
Dan

[e owen]

No experience, but low acid,high tannin, early, and resistant ticks a lot of boxes. Keep us posted.

[Frozen North Fruit]

Came across this dead thread.  My Rouville graft has fruit for the first time this year.  Will see come august.

With a TA<4.5 g/L and Tannins: >2.5 g/L while being cold resistant AND resistant to scab and fireblight is interesting.  But yes it is crazy early.  I only getting a couple fruit this year but will possibly do a single variety ferment later and blend it.

A nursery report is here:

https://prairiegardens.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Prairie-Gardens-Cider-Apples.pdf

Rouville Apple
Canadian Hardiness Zone: 3 | Cider Classification: Bittersweet

Why It’s Special: It’s hard to find hardy bittersweet apple varieties that are ripe in August! Rouville is a
large, tasty all-purpose apple. It is high in sugar and tannin, making it popular with cider makers. This
apple tree also stands out in terms of its disease-resistance, being resistant to both scab and fire blight.
This lovely Quebec cider apple has a wonderful bitter-sweetness that is great for fresh eating and
juicing. Itis one of the earliest to ripen in late August, and it keeps remarkably well.

History: Rouville apples were created by R.L. Granger and G.L. Rouselle in 1962 at the Agriculture and
Agri-food Canada research centre located in St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. The variety was introduced
in 1983.

Fruit: Large apples have pale, greenish-yellow skin mostly covered by red blushes. Inside, the coarse
flesh is juicy and a pale cream-colour. The apple is ribbed, making it not completely round. It ranges in
size from 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 inches wide {7 to 8 cm.)
Growing Notes:

e Vigorous and precocious, produces reliable crops. Very resistant to scab.

e Requires a pollinator of a different apple variety that blooms around the same time
® Flowering Time: Bloom middle

e Ripens: Late August

e Storage: Keeps until October when stored in cool, humid conditions

eo Recommended Use: Fresh eating, cooking, cider

Cider Properties:

e (Class: Bittersweet

e Sugar: High, SG >1.060
eo Acidity: Low, TA<4.5 g/L
e Tannins: High, >2.5 g/L
® Juice Yield: High

[Casey Dahl]

I'd be eager to hear what you think of them once they ripen.  I have some grafted in a test row but have very little info to go on.  It, frankly, sounds too good to be true, and I'm hesitant to plant many until I can harvest and evaluate.  I'm also hesitant by reading the above description, which says high tannins and good for fresh eating!  The tannin content that they give would be on par with many bittersweet varieties that I can't imagine people thinking of as fresh eating apples.  I know that there are various ways of measuring tannins and often inconsistencies in how they are measured from lab to lab.  I only hope that it turns out similar to the figures cited.

As for the season, I think for warmer areas it could be an issue but where I live has very cool summers due to Lake Michigan.  Early apples are often 2-3 weeks later here and summer apples tend to be of higher quality than just 2-3 hours south and inland. 

Claude, have you tried apples from Rouville?  Do you know anyone in Canada making cider with them?

Casey

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Claude, have you tried apples from Rouville?  Do you know anyone in Canada making cider with them?

See my post (quite old, in 2014) higher in this thread. Nothing new since! I still haven't seen the fruit and can't say anything about the variety.

It was tested along many other varieties in Canada during the 1980s and there is a very interesting report:

Apple cultivars for juice and cider production, Agriculture Canada Technical bulletin 1988-6E, by W.P. Mohr.

Download here: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2021/aac-aafc/A54-8-1988-6-eng.pdf

It says about Rouville: "Hardy. Harvested late August. Soft when processed early September; should be processed soon after harvest. Good juice yield. Medium soluble solids. Low to medium titratable acid. Sugar-to-acid ratio 20. Low tannin. Excellent color. Fair flavor."

So... nothing exceptional there. The Sugar-to-acid ratio of 20 is similar to what he quotes for varieties such as McIntosh, Northern Spy, Fameuse, Empire - which are all studied in this same report. And for example, they also report on a few bittersweet varieties (Tremlett's Bitter and Yarlington Mill), and these had a sugar-to-acid ratio of 47 and 48 respectively, hence much higher than Rouville.

For my part, I would give more credit to this study than to the claims from a nursery... Hence my expectatins would be fairly low for Rouville as a cider apple. Until someone demonstrates otherwise!!!

[Casey Dahl]

Thanks for the link!  That's a great resource on Canadian varieties.  I also have Lindel, which I was told has high tannins but this publication seems to also put that claim into question.  This might save me a lot of time testing cultivars.

Casey