SPECIAL REPORT Calvados: The Epicure’s Secret Elixir Henrik Mattsson
In French Normandy, you never get any straight answers.
“It says 10 years on the bottle. Is that the case?” I ask, sipping the golden Calvados. “Well, part is 25 years old” is the answer. A dark Calvados is likely to be very old indeed, but you can’t be certain.
I inhale deeply from the glass, and my nose is filled with the fresh scent of apples, mixed with roasted, buttery nuances of oak, vanilla, dried fruit, and caramel. “Are only apples used?” I venture again. “Well, a little pear is used, too.” And now I do get the slightly sweet sensation of pear.
“But all good Calvados is distilled twice?” I continue, in the hopes that I’ll get eventually something right. “Well, many good Calvadoses are only distilled once.” I capitulate, as the scent reminds me of grass, apple blossoms, and citrus.
I finally discover that the Normans’ famous “maybe, maybe not” attitude is perfectly appropriate. What Calvados lacks in straight answers, it more than compensates for with a fascinating tradition, complexity, and personality.
A WAY OF LIFE
Thousands of Normans cultivate orchards, picking and fermenting their apples just as their ancestors have done since at least the 17th century. People joke that there is no art to making good Calvados—it’s enough to have had a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who filled the barrels and managed the orchards. For a millennium or more, the region has been known for its fine cider. Today, there are many varieties made, including a festive sparkling cider, an everyday cider, and the cider that’s distilled into Calvados.
Every household producer matures a load of good cider from each harvest in cool oak barrels to enjoy throughout the year. At the next harvest, the old cider has to make room for the new; whatever is left in the barrels is distilled into apple brandy, which is then aged in oak barrels. Some producers distill their own Calvados, while others send it to traveling distilleries. Older barrels are commonly topped up with the newly distilled spirit. That’s why it is unusual to find vintage Calvados; like Cognac, most Calvados is blended from various harvests.
Calvados and apples are hardly the primary sources of income in Normandy. The coastal cities—Cabourg, Honfleur, and Deauville, with their casinos, film festivals, and horse races—appeal to the Paris jet set and attract summer tourists. Other major industries include cotton milling, livestock and horse breeding, and manufacturing, highlighted by the world’s first automobile plant and one of the world’s largest harbors, Le Havre. In other words, most Normans don’t have to make a living from distilling Calvados. They drink cider on a daily basis and keep the fine Calvados for family and friends.
Around 20 family producers are more commercial, including Adrien Camut, Coeur de Lion, Domaine Dupont, Le Père Jules, Pierre Huet, and Roger Groult. Many of these own beautiful homes in the traditional timbered style, full of old and new barrels from the previous and current generations. Thousands of tourists visit them every year to buy a few bottles and to see and learn about the fine art of Calvados. The biggest producers—Boulard, Busnel, Château du Breuil, Domaine du Coquerel, and Père Magloire—maintain well-organized visitor centers that offer guided tours and tastings.
THE REGION
Among the five regions of Normandy, the central area of Calvados is, of course, the most important for apple-brandy production. The major cities are Cambremer, Lisieux, Livarot, and Pont l’Évêque. Here, among the Pays d’Auge’s green hills and valleys, you will find several of the best producers, most of whom make the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Calvados Pays d’Auge, the label with the most reliable quality. The Cider Road around Cambremer takes you past several of these distillers, who happily welcome visitors and offer cider, pommeau (a sweet mixture of Calvados and apple juice), and Calvados. Many tourists stay at one of the rebuilt timbered barns that have been turned into cozy gites, the French equivalent of bed and breakfasts. If you are here in the autumn, you can experience the apple harvest and pressing.
Legend has it that Calvados was named for a Spanish galleon that sank off the Norman coast in the 16th century. It’s more likely, however, that the apple brandy was simply named after the region. Officially designated after the French Revolution, the area had long been called Calvados by the local farmers. The name was probably a portmanteau word coined by sailors to describe the barren landmarks visible from the sea, combining the Latin calvus (“leafless” or “naked”) with the French dos (“back”).
The Norman countryside is a farmer’s paradise, perfect for growing fruit and grazing livestock, with fertile soil, predictable precipitation, and a humid climate. West of the Pays d’Auge hills, the narrow, curving roads edged with high bushes lead down into the flatter landscape of Bocage—known from the Normandy invasion of World War II—toward Manche, east of Caen. Manche features white-sand beaches, a magnificent coastal landscape, and landmarks such as the “cloister island” of Mont-Saint-Michel.
Southeast of Caen, I visited Domaine Dupont, housed in a beautiful, old stone manor with timbered wings. The family has been making Calvados since before 1700, but its modern history dates to 1887, when Jules Dupont began raising cattle at La Vigannerie. Income from the sale of Calvados allowed him to purchase the property in 1916, and he was succeeded by his son, Louis, and daughter-in-law, Colette. Grandson Etienne has run the 67-acre estate since Colette died in 1980; she had been in charge following Louis’s death in 1974.
The next generation, Jérôme, took over the family’s cider production in 2002. “I have some very clear memories of walking in the orchard with my grandfather Louis,” he says, “spending all evening with my father, feeding the fire of the still with logs of apple trees and helping him stick labels on bottles of Calvados. All these special family moments have certainly played a role in my decision to join the domaine after working 10 years in England.”
PRODUCTION METHODS
Just as in the Garden of Eden, everything starts with an apple. In Normandy, there are hundreds of kinds of apple trees—30 types in the Dupont orchard alone. Different varieties pollinate and ripen at different times, which helps divide up the harvest. These are not typical apples for eating; they are small and sour, some acidic, others bitter, all combining to create the characteristic tastes of cider and Calvados.
Although modern picking machines are found today, the old method of harvesting, whereby the apples are shaken from the branches with a stick, is still in use on many estates. After the harvest, the apples are left to rest for a few weeks so they can breathe and develop aromas. Next, they are washed and crushed or ground into a pulp. Because most of the flavor comes from the peel, the pulp is soaked in its own juice for a few hours before the golden drops are pressed out.
The apple juice then ferments naturally in stainless-steel tanks or large oak barrels. For Calvados, the cider ferments until all the sugar has been converted to alcohol. At the Dupont estate, as at most others, the cider is then double-distilled in a copper pan. The result is a colorless spirit called eau-de-vie de cidre.
Perry pears are grown particularly in the area around Domfront; a Calvados Domfrontais must contain at least 30% pear cider, and many are 100% pear. “The use of pear in Calvados makes a very delicate, lighter style,” says Guillaume Drouin of Comte Louis de Lauriston in Domfront. “It gives a fresh fruitiness as well as a nice, straight acidity.” A Calvados Pays d’Auge AOC may contain a maximum of 30% pear, but there is no limit on the percentage of pear cider elsewhere in Calvados.
To be labeled Calvados, the fruit brandy must gain color and aroma from being matured in oak barrels for at least two years, although it’s often significantly longer (see box). The craft of manually filling the bottles, corking them closed, and sealing the tops with wax is still practiced by some of the smaller producers.
Younger Calvados is straw-yellow in color; slightly older, it is more golden; even older, it has touches of amber, eventually leading to a dark golden brown with red-mahogany nuances.
CALVADOS AND FOOD
The visitor centers at Boulard and Père Magloire contain restaurants with gigantic, built-in cider barrels. Known as “Paris’s cupboard,” Normandy produces not only famous cheeses—such as the mature Camembert and the flavorful Pont l’Évêque—but the best butter, cream, meat, vegetables, fish, eggs, foie gras, seafood, and oysters for the Paris markets. Chicken and root vegetables in cream, served au gratin with Livarot cheese, is a typical example of how Norman food is prepared with butter, cream, and cheese instead of with olive oil, as in southern France. Croissants are made with butter, and brioche with eggs. Cider and Calvados are refreshing accompaniments to this rustic cuisine.
Of course, Calvados also works well as a flavoring ingredient. Try preparing a sauce from cream, Calvados, and mild soy sauce to serve with fillet of beef. Or serve a dessert made from a flambée of apples and nuts, caramelized in Calvados with sugar and butter, along with vanilla ice cream.
The Normans like to drink a little glass of Calvados—called un trou Normand, “a Norman hole”—between courses to aid the digestion. Many cocktails can be made with Calvados as well. It’s especially effective when replacing a darker mature spirit such as Cognac, but even a classic drink made with light spirits can get a flavorful twist from a younger Fine Calvados. An example is an ice-cold apple martini, which, as an aperitif, is guaranteed to get your taste buds going.
In France, Calvados is most commonly served after dinner, in a tulip- or balloon-shaped glass, along with coffee. In fact, bistros in the 1960s automatically served Calvados with your coffee; called café-calva , this custom gave the inexpensive spirit an unfavorable reputation among the French. The Normans themselves have long differentiated between Calvados degustation and the cheaper “Calvan.”
Compared to better-known premium spirits like Cognac and single-malt whisky, Calvados is still a well-kept secret. The Normans drink most of it themselves. In recent years, however, buyers in Europe and North America have begun to discover its value. Germany led all importers of Calvados with 359,200 liters in 2008; the United States was fifth at 35,000 liters. Mature, unique, and traditionally made Calvados of the highest quality is now available at competitive prices in many world markets.
“Is this a good purchase?” I ask the producer at my last stop before my trip home from Normandy. The usual “maybe, maybe not” philosophy seems to be forgotten; instead, the answer is, “Of course, this is a treasure—a very good investment for both your mouth and your wallet.”