World Calvados Day

The biggest inside-tip in spirits?

It’s a question we ask ourselves sometimes, and since today is World Calvados Day, we’re putting it to you:

Is Calvados the greatest inside-tip in world spirits at the moment?

Winemaker’s approach to fruit meets single malt-style distillation

Many people know that Calvados is Normandy’s apple brandy – the malic answer to Armagnac and Cognac, further south.

But what few know is that Calvados isn’t just made from any apples – but from varieties of apples grown specifically for the purpose. Varieties rich in tannins, acids and phenols – perfect for cider and apple brandy – that grow nowhere else in the world.

These are apples with so much more flavour and structure than those you might buy to eat. Just as wine grapes differ from table grapes.

Carefully chosen and blended, slowly fermented in just the same way as wine, long-aged in oak casks. It’s a spirit of consummate skill, care, patience … one that reflects its specific fruits and terroirs.

The apex Calvados appellation

Just like wine (a theme here) Calvados isn’t one-size-fits-all. It is divided into different appellations, with different characteristics, varieties and approaches.

And by common consensus, the finest, richest Calvados, such as that made by Maison Boulard, comes from Calvados Pays d’Auge AOP.

Here the preferred style is fuller, riper, more viscous than the lighter, generic, Calvados AOP. Like most single malt Scotch, it is double distilled in copper pots, for signature weight and depth of spirit – the kind of spirit that can take the longest ageing in wood.

Maison Boulard, here since 1825, were early adopters of double distillation. It’s the method behind their whole range, lending particular texture and complexity to the whole Boulard Portfolio, whether it’s the bright, fruit-driven VSOP or the indulgent, dark-fruited XO.

How to best enjoy your Calvados – tips from Brand Manager Flo

We love Maison Boulard sipped simply on its own; a pure expression of apple and orchard. It’s especially delightful to hunker down with a generous pour of the XO by an autumn fire.

But Calvados is increasingly being turned to by top mixologists as a brilliant and versatile cocktail ingredient.

The bright apple peel, toffee and spice of the VSOP finds a very happy home as an alternative to Rye in a Manhattan, whereas the XO takes Bourbon’s place in an Old Fashioned in a particularly winning, autumnal way.

However you serve it, pour yourself a glass for World Calvados Day … and then keep drinking this underrated gem all the way through the rest of the year.