Bon Vent brings cider to Hancock

HANCOCK, Maine (WABI) - Bon Vent in Hancock is bringing authentic cider flavors and jam music to Downeast Maine.

The tasting room allows people to sample a variety of seasonal ciders all made at the brewery.

Owner and brewer Mathias Kamin has had a deep passion for cider and apples for most of his life and is now using his skills for his own small business.

“I was 15, I studied abroad in Normandy, France, and my first legal beverage was a traditional Normandy style hard cider, because it wasn’t the style, it was just in Normandy. So it was a Norman hard cider,” said Kamin. “That was 22 years ago, and I’ve been sort of chasing that ever since. That was like an experience that I can’t really even put into words, and when I came back to the United States as a 15 year old, I immediately wanted to make hard cider.”

Kamin says he could taste a perfect cider Apple within seconds. He spent years working on orchards and learning about brewing cider, beer and wine.

“It either has, you know, no...no acidity and lots of tannins we call those bitter sweets. It either has, a lot of...a lot of tannins and a lot of of acid and, you know, like a crab apple or something. You call us bitter sharps,” he described.

When moving from New York to Maine, he realized there were not many true cideries. He began working at a local brewery.

“I wanted to know the sort of local people and, and just kind of get to know the area better,” he said.

He asked his previous bosses what they knew about ciders.

“And they gave me a sheet of paper front and back with everybody who’d ever talked about apples to them with their names and phone numbers and their emails. And I still have that that piece of paper, and I sort of cherish it. The people on that list in the last six or seven years have become friends and sort of people I look up to,” Kamin said.

While his love and knowledge for apples is unmeasurable, he says he’s not a master, and there is always more to learn about the entire business and himself.

“I’ve learned to be very grateful for the kind of life that I lead, right I get to joke and say that I climb apple trees for a living. I absolutely love what I do,” Kamin said.

His advice to people that want to turn their knowledge and passions into their own business is simple: “You’re going to fail a couple times, and the key is actually to just continue doing it, even if you fail.”

One of the key parts of making cider is the ingredients are always changing with the seasons. So at Bon Vent the menu is always changing, too.

“It’s very seasonal and specific. So I like to make site specific ciders. I like to sort of express time and place, and then sort of make cider that I think people would have drank in that area for the last 100 years or so or more, depending on how old the trees are,” he said.

A lot of that fruit comes from all across the state.

“I try not to, if I can help it, purchase apples in bulk, because I feel like there’s enough. And where the fun is, is in the hunt of trying to find old trees, old stands of trees, old abandoned orchards that maybe haven’t been taken care of,” Kamin said.

Sometimes that leads to meeting new people and learning more about the area.

“I like knocking on doors and getting people’s stories. Sometimes you’ll knock on a door and you’ll say, ‘hey, what do you know about these apple trees in your door yard?’ And, and they’ll invite you in, and then they’ll open up a cupboard, and on the back of the cupboard, it’ll be scribbled and penciled the names of the trees, and at the top there’ll be maybe, like, a little line and it says the word pond, and maybe there’s a directional orientation on the wall too. So you kind of know what things are, or what what people called them,” he said.

At Bon Vent there are parts of the owners personality and interest sprinkled throughout.

“I host an old time Appalachian Mountain Music jam every Thursday, from 5:30 to around 8:00 or whenever we all get tired and call it quits, and then every other Sunday, we have an Irish session,” he said.

When creating the business, Matthias knew he wanted it to be a place for people to come to and stay for a while.

“We want people to come in and feel not rushed to make a decision. We want you to come in sort of check out the space, maybe go play some bocce, pick some tomatoes in the garden, like, whatever, listen to some music and sort of leave having a better understanding of what cider is or can be and then sort of just having a good time,” Kamin said.

Bon Vent is open Thursday through Sundays and is located right on Highway 1 in Hancock.

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