Calvados: The Apple Of A Brandy Drinker’s Eye

BY JASON WILSON | NOVEMBER 7, 2018

There are no wine appellations in Normandy. Grapes, revered elsewhere in France, are an afterthought in this region that stretches out into the English Channel on France’s northwest coast, about a two hour drive from Paris. The climate is just too unpredictable — hot and sunny one moment, rainy and windy the next. Forget about grapes in Normandy. Here, the apple is king.

Cows grazing in the orchard during summer months, a Norman tradition

Each fall, dozens of apple varieties, in field blends, are harvested, crushed and pressed into cider. In Calvados, much of that cider, after resting up to a year, is distilled into the exquisite apple brandy that takes the region’s name.

Outside France, spirits aficionados tend to overlook Calvados when discussing the world’s great brandies, the focus and attention is too often on Cognac and Armagnac. But those among us who love the apple brandy from Normandy know what the uninitiated are missing. No less than the great New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling, in his classic food memoir Between Meals, declared Calvados "the best alcohol in the world." In Liebling's opinion, Calvados “has a more agreeable bouquet, a warmer touch to the heart, and more outgoing personality than Cognac.” Though, he did admit that "not everybody has had the advantage of a good early soaking in the blessed liquid.”

“Usually people who like Calvados like spirits with personality,” said Guillaume Drouin, who runs Christian Drouin, his family’s distillery. It's not an overstatement to say that after a meal, Calvados touches the heart warmly. Over the past decade, I’ve visited Normandy numerous times and Calvados has become one of my favorite spirits. I’ve also witnessed its continued evolution.

Cask used to make Calvados in the solera style at Adrien Camut

Even within France, Calvados has struggled with its reputation. Sixty years ago, there were about 15,000 Calvados producers in Normandy, most of them unlicensed. These were farmers who distilled apple brandy for personal consumption, much of it was rough stuff that became known by the slang term calva — the sort of thing old men drank with their morning coffee. Now, just over 300 producers remain in the 2,100 square-mile region of Calvados, with only about 20 brands that are known outside the region. It has taken time, but slowly over the past two decades, a serious generation of Calvados producers has elevated the spirit into a conversation with the world’s other great brandies. “We are a young generation making a product that’s old-fashioned,” Jean-Roger Groult, sixth-generation distiller at Roger Groult told me “We’re dusting off the image of Calvados.”