Salu2food Liquor & Spirits Brandy French Other French Calvados
ABOUT CALVADOS
Calvados comes from Normandy in Northwestern France, and as with cognacand armagnac, the geographical limits and details of production are regulatedby French law. The finest calvados bears the appellation controlee Pay d'Auge, and is produced in a small area around the seaside resort of Deauville.The 50 to 60 varieties of apples used to distill calvados are, for the mostpart, small and bitter, yet make the best brandy. The apples are crushedand fermented into cider, which is then double-distilled in pot stills.Most calvados however, bears a lesser classification - appellation reglementee.Some of this calvados is made in pot stills, but most goes through a singledistillation in continuous stills.
All calvados is aged in oak casks, acquiring coloring, subtlety and mellowness.While it begins to display finesse after 4 or 5 yrs in wood, some calvadosis aged for decades. Calvados matures more slowly than other brandies, sincethe proof is not reduced prior to barreling. Almost all calvados is a blendof several yrs and is bottled at between 80 and 86 proof.