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Calvados from Christian Drouin
A family business and the first prestige Calvados
In the 1960s, Christian Drouin was looking for a way to utilise the many apples he harvested from his newly purchased farm in Normandy. Apples were in very low demand and most farms were producing cider, which a local distiller with a portable still travelled around making calvados. He taught Christian Drouin his methods, but for twenty years Christian Drouin was content to make and store his calvados in barrels on the farm.
It was Christian Drouin's son who realised his dream of commercially exploiting his father's calvados. He had a cellar full of vintage calvados. However, the dream ran into obstacles because, although calvados had been produced for 400 years and was widely consumed in Northern France and the surrounding area, calvados was not considered fine enough to be treated with the respect a vintage product deserves. Christian Drouin Jr. had a dream of bringing calvados into the best Michelin-starred restaurants.
Calvados as a gourmet experience
Christian Drouin Calvados is made from 30 different apple varieties, and it all takes place on the old Coeur de Lion apple farm. The delicious calvados is made with wild yeast and aged in a combination of 100-year-old oak barrels and steel tanks. The old distilling equipment is still used, supplemented by two new sets.
How to drink Calvados:
The classic way to enjoy Calvados
Calvados is traditionally enjoyed as a "digéstif" (or avec), i.e. at the end of a good meal. Calvados should not be swirled around in the glass, but slowly swirled around so that the liquid settles against the sides of the glass. When the last drops have run down to the rest of the calvados, you can slowly begin to savour the warming, perfumed drops.
The latest trend
The latest trend in calvados is to drink it as an apéritif, i.e. before the meal as a welcome drink. This can be either with a few ice cubes or as a cocktail with tonic water or ginger ale. You should expect to use 1/10 calvados and 9/10 soft drink.
How is Calvados pronounced?
Calvados is one of the few French words that ends in a pronounced s - unlike tournedos, for example. For both words, however, the stress should be on the last syllable.
Walter recommends:
- Christian Drouin Pays d'Auge Millésimé: Pays d'Auge is a region in Normandy, but the fact that a Calvados is called "Pays d'Auge" means much more than just that it is produced in a special place. All the apples must be harvested in the Pays d'Auge and the distillation must be a double distillation process. Finally, it must be approved by a committee that examines the calvados both by tasting and chemical analysis.
- AOC 1964: Tannic calvados with light notes of almonds and beer. The fact that it is AOC means that a French body has recognised the origin of Calvados and that it meets certain quality requirements that make it representative of its region.
- Hors d'âge: Aged for approximately 15 years. Christian Drouin Calvados Hors d'âge has received numerous French and international awards. It has a spicy flavour and is reminiscent of wood. It is said to be perfect with a good cigar.
