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A quarter of an hour's drive from Deauville in Normandy, time stands still. A gravel path leads into the green valley landscape of the Touques river, revealing a half-timbered dream. The picturesque 17th century property is the home of Calvados Christian Drouin. Tradition is not just a facade here. The family business is now in its third generation and uses traditional methods to process a raw material for which the entire region is famous: the apple. Anyone who thinks of variety in front of the fruit shelf in the supermarket has in reality only had a tiny insight into the universe of apples. More than 30 different varieties thrive in the orchards of Christian Drouin and his son Guillaume, who now runs the company. Whether bitter, sweet, bittersweet or sour: all the apples from the standard trees are organic. When they fall to the ground fully ripe between September and December, they are then refined into the spirits for which the Drouin house has been awarded over 200 gold medals.

With the most extensive collection of vintage Calvados, dating back to 1939, the Drouin house is the Gordon & MacPhail of the Calvados industry. The apple brandy from Normandy is produced by double pot still distillation of cider, i.e. fermented apple juice. The later the distillation process begins after the harvest (sometimes not until the following autumn), the greater the aging potential of Calvados and the possibility of producing long-aged vintages - the specialty of the Drouins.

Drouin's Calvados matures in mostly smaller oak barrels that were previously filled with sherry, port, cognac or Bordeaux. They allow a higher level of interaction and contribute to the development of great aromatic complexity. The house also experiments with finishes, for example using barrels from Mars or Hampden Estate. The standard range includes blends of different levels of maturity. The Calvados VSOP, for example, from (strong) wine barrels, offers sensual fruit notes and aromas of ripe apples that combine fullness and elegance. Matured a little longer and finished in cognac barrels, the Calvados XO , on the other hand, is heavy and full-bodied with strong notes of baked apple and tarte tatin. The powerful Calvados Hors d'Age matures for at least 18 years in former Calvados barrels, which give it fine, silky tannins as well as floral and spicy notes. After 25 years, the Calvados 25 ans has all the complexity of a very old Calvados: it is full-bodied, smooth and wonderfully balanced.

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