Calvados

Q: What is Calvados made from?

Calvados is distilled from cider made with Normandy apples (and sometimes pears), then aged in oak barrels. Like Champagne, it's protected by law — true Calvados can only come from Normandy, France.

Q: How do you drink Calvados?

Traditionally neat, at room temperature, after a good meal. The Normans also drink it between courses — the trou normand. It mixes beautifully too: try it anywhere you'd use whisky or Cognac in a cocktail.

Q: What's the difference between Calvados and brandy?

Brandy is the family name for spirits distilled from fruit; most brandy comes from grapes. Calvados is the apple-based branch of the family — same warming character, but with orchard fruit where the grape would be.

Buy Calvados Online — Normandy's Legendary Apple Brandy Calvados is the apple brandy of Normandy — orchard fruit distilled and oak-aged into something warming, elegant and magnificent after dinner....

Calvados

Buy Calvados Online — Normandy's Legendary Apple Brandy

Calvados is the apple brandy of Normandy — orchard fruit distilled and oak-aged into something warming, elegant and magnificent after dinner.

While Cognac gets the headlines, those in the know pour Calvados. Made from Normandy cider apples and aged in oak, it's one of France's great spirits — and our range from Château du Breuil and Boulard includes some seriously interesting bottles.

Which Calvados should I choose?

Château du Breuil Fine is a friendly starting point, while the VSOP bottlings add depth from longer ageing. Feeling adventurous? Boulard's cask-finish range — rye, bourbon, wheat whiskey and even Japanese Mizunara oak — shows how modern Calvados can get.

How to serve Calvados

Neat in a tulip glass after dinner is the classic. In Normandy they take a mid-meal shot — the famous trou normand — to "make room" for the next course. It's also superb in an apple-forward Old Fashioned or with a splash of tonic and ice.