Calvados

Calvados is an apple brandy from Normandy in France.
Calvados is distilled from cider made from specially grown and selected apples, from over 200 varieties. They can be bitter, sweet, acid, sour or bitter-sweet.
The fruit is harvested and pressed into a juice that is fermented into a dry cider. It is then distilled into eau de vie. After ageing in oak casks, it can be sold as calvados as following:

*“Fine”: 2 years old minimum
*“VSOP”: 4 years
*“XO”: 6 years

Three different AOC appellations exist:
*Calvados (71% of total surface): Can be obtained by apples from the whole Normandy and be distilled only once in a column still.
*Calvados « Pays d’Auge » (28%): the apples must be produced in the Region Pays d’Auge, from selected varieties. 2 distillations in a pot still are necessary.
*Calvados «Domfrontais» (1%) : produced with minimum 30 % of pears.