Depression Era Calvados: Camut 1926

I've been getting into Calvados in a big way lately. There is something wondrous that happens to apples when you distill them.

Camut is one of the most prominent producers in Calvados and has been producing from the apples grown on their land in Normandy since the nineteenth century.

Recently, I was lucky enough to try a 1926 Camut Calvados. This was a European release bottled at 41% abv. We don't know the exact bottling date, but based on the story of the bottle, we think it was bottled in the late 1970s, so we are talking about fifty plus years in wood (unlike Cognac and Armagnac producers, Calvados producers rarely transfer their brandy to glass containers for any significant time prior to bottling).

For all the age on this brandy, it was fresh and vibrant with powerful apple flavors on the nose. The palate was rich with apple mellowed by light vanilla oak notes. There was no mustiness and it wasn't over-oaked. This came together so well and was so delicious that I stopped taking notes. It was as delicious as any spirit I've had, be it an old Brora or a Very Old Fitzgerald.

Yes, this beautiful spirit is unobtainable; I can't even find any evidence of its existence on-line. The good news is that the Calvados that's available right now is great too, including a lot of Camut's stuff. I'll be writing more on that in the months to come.

Thanks to Dan Walbrun for sharing his bottle.