Calvados Week

I've been continuing my love affair with brandy, and for the next two weeks, I'll be reviewing apple brandies. This week, I'll taste three Calvados and next week, a number of other apple brandies. To prepare, I thought I'd start with a brief summary of Calvados.

Calvados is the world's foremost apple brandy. Produced in Normandy, France, Calvados is distilled cider made from apples and/or pears. The cider is often aged in oak casks prior to distillation, sometimes for years. Calvados must leave the still at no more than 72% abv. After distillation, the brandy must be aged in oak for at least two years and must be bottled at a minimum of 40% abv.  As with other French brandies, coloring, sugar and wood chips are permissible additives.

Within Calvados, there are two legally recognized sub-appellations (though they do not cover the entire Calvados region, so some producers are not in either sub-region and are just part of the general Calvados Appellation):

The Pays d'Auge Region is the most prominent region of Calvados, similar to Grand Champagne in Coganc or Bas-Armagnac in Armagnac. Brandy labeled as Pays d'Auge must have no more than 30% pear, and many use 100% apple. Pays d'Auge Calvados is required to be double distilled in a pot still.

The Domfrontais Region requires that the Calvados be made from at least 30% pear up to as much as 100% pear. The Calvados must be distilled once in a column still. As in Armagnac, many Calvados producers do not have their own stills but distill their brandy in a traveling column still.

From what I understand, producers in these sub-regions do not have to follow the requirements listed above, but they can only use the regional designation on their label if they do. 

Those are the basics, but I left out a lot of detail. There are tons of regulations in Calvados governing nearly every element of production from barrel size to permissible orchard irrigation.  If you really want a deep dive, pick up a copy of Calvados: The Spirit of Normandy, Charles Neal's 700 plus page tome that examines every facet of Calvados production. Neal also keeps up a nice website with basic descriptions of Calvados production.

Tomorrow I start tasting.