Bayeux · Normandie · France · No. 04 of 04 · 7 min read

Calvados, after dinner, in November

November in Normandy is not a month of abundance. The cider is fermenting in stone cellars. The days are short and wet and grey. After dinner, when the table has been cleared, someone brings out the Calvados. This is the correct moment.

By Hélène Dubois · Bayeux, Normandy, France · Issue 47, Feature 04

I. What it is

Apple brandy distilled in Normandy. Three subregions: Calvados (broadest), Pays d'Auge (double distillation in pot stills, the most complex), Domfrontais (minimum 30% pear). Bittersweet and bittersharp varieties — not eating apples. Distilled twice, into oak barrels for a minimum of two years.

II. The age categories

VS and Fine: 2 years, primarily for cooking. VSOP: 4 years, entry point as digestif. XO: 6 years (recently raised from 3), the real aging character emerges. Hors d'Age and vintage: 15+ years, sometimes 30 or 40. A different product, in the same way a 30-year Cognac is a different product from a 12-year.

III. The Pays d'Auge

The reference style. Double distillation in alambic charentais pot stills produces a more concentrated, complex spirit with more character to age on. Old gnarled orchards in high grass, same varieties for centuries. Producers I return to: Château du Breuil for reliable widely available. Roger Groult since 1870. Domaine Dupont for the Hors d'Age — one of the most complete digestifs in any category.

IV. November

Tulip or small balloon glass. Room temperature. Quarter of the way full. Smell first — Calvados communicates through the nose. Sip slowly. The dinner is over and the evening has claimed the table. The rain is on the window if it is November in Normandy.

Recipe — A serving note — and a pan-sauce

Hélène Dubois · Bayeux · there is no home recipe for Calvados — it is not distilled in a kitchen

For drinking

For cooking · Poulet à la Normande

The method

  1. Pour 2 oz into a tulip or small balloon glass at room temperature.
  2. Smell it before you taste it. The apple has been transformed by the years in the barrel.
  3. Sip slowly. Taste it over thirty minutes — the spirit warms in the hand and the aromatics evolve.
  4. For the pan-sauce: deglaze the roast-chicken pan with younger Calvados, reduce by half, finish with cream and a sprig of fresh thyme. Spoon over the chicken.

About the contributor

Hélène Dubois

Hélène Dubois writes about Calvados and Norman food culture from Bayeux, Normandy, France. She drinks Pays d'Auge Hors d'Age after dinner, in November, in a tulip glass, at room temperature.

Editor’s notes — the longer view

A note on cooking. Younger VS or Fine deglazed into the pan after sautéing chicken or pork, reduced, finished with cream and thyme — the sauce Norman cooking is built on. Use the aged Calvados for drinking.

A note on the trou normand. The mid-meal pause with a small glass. Biologically nonsense — alcohol does not make room in the stomach — but it does reset the palate and provide a deliberate intermission. Do it for the right reason.

A note on Pommeau. Fresh apple juice fortified with Calvados, aged in oak, around 17%. The traditional Norman aperitif. Pommeau at the start, Calvados at the end. Not interchangeable.

A note on the transformation in the glass. A glass changes over thirty minutes. First sip: alcohol and oak. Last sip half an hour later: the orchard. Return to the glass after the conversation has moved. Find something different there.

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