| Tuesday, January 22, 2008 |
| Visiting a small calvados producer around Cambremer along the cider route |
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posted by Wine Addict @ 11:18 PM   |
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| Calvados in popular culture |
In the 1963 novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming, James Bond drinks a glass of ten-year-old Calvados.
Calvados is the main characters' favourite drink in Erich Maria Remarque's novel Arch of Triumph.
Calvados is often referred to in the writings of mystic George Gurdjieff.
Cornelius Bear is known to have a stash of several well-aged bottles of calvados in the webcomic Achewood.
Inspector Maigret often stops in to a cafe for a glass of Calvados in Georges Simenon's novels and short stories.
On the album Us Against the Crown by State Radio, there is a song called "Calvados Chopper." It speaks of a man who is driving a motorcycle while "hopped up on Calvados."
In Astérix et les Normands (Asterix and the Normans/Vikings), volume 9 of the popular Astérix comic books, Calvados is the national drink of the Vikings, and they are depicted drinking it out of the hollowed skulls of their dead enemies.
In the BBC television series Secret Army, the proprietor of the Cafe Candide and agent of the Resistance, Albert Foiret, (Bernard Hepton) keeps a supply of Calvados specially for his high ranking German customers. It is the favourite drink of Sturmbannführer Ludwig Kessler (Clifford Rose) who, in the series, is head of the SS in Brussels.
Calvados is the regimental drink of Canada's storied Régiment de Maisonneuve, having been taken up as the infantry regiment passed through Normandy following the D-Day invasion. |
| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:18 PM |
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| Tasting |
| Calvados is the basis of the tradition of le trou Normand, or "the Norman hole". This is a small drink of Calvados taken between courses in a very long meal, sometimes with apple sorbet, supposed to re-awaken the appetite. Calvados can be served as aperitif, blended in drinks, between meals, as digestive or with coffee. Well-made calvados should naturally be reminiscent of apples and pears, balanced with flavours of ageing. The less aged calvados distinguishes itself with its fresh apple and pear aromas. The longer the calvados is aged, the more the taste resembles that of any other aged brandy. As calvados ages, it may become golden or darker brown with orange elements and red mahogany. The nose and palate are delicate with concentration of aged apples and dried apricots balanced with butterscotch, nut and chocolate aromas. |
| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:18 PM |
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| Map of the calvados region |
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| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:17 PM |
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| A calvados pot still |
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| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:17 PM |
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| Double and single distillation |
The appellation of AOC calvados authorizes double distillation for all calvados but it is required for the AOC calvados Pays d’Auge.
Double distillation is carried out in traditional alembic pot-still -- called either ‘l'alambic à repasse’ or ‘charentais’. This process gives the spirit complexity and renders it suitable for longer aging.
Single continuous distillation in a column still. It gives the calvados a fresh and clean apple flavour but with less complexity. |
| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:17 PM |
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| History |
| Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known Norman distillation was carried out by ‘Lord’ de Gouberville in 1554, and the guild for cider distillation was created about 50 years later in 1606. In the 17th century the traditional ciderfarms expanded but taxation and prohibition of cider brandies were enforced elsewhere than Brittany, Maine and Normandy. The area called ‘Calvados’ was created after the French Revolution, but ‘Eau de vie de cidre’ was already called ‘calvados’ in common usage. In the 19th century output increased with industrial distillation and the working class fashion for ‘Café-calva’. When a phylloxera outbreak devastated the vineyards of France and Europe, calvados experienced a ‘golden age’. During World War I cider brandy was made for armaments. The appellation contrôlée regulations officially gave calvados a protected name in 1942. After the war many cider-houses and distilleries were reconstructed, mainly in the Pays d'Auge. Many of the traditional farmhouse structures were replaced by modern agriculture with high output. The calvados appellation system was revised in 1984 and 1996. Pommeau got its recognition in 1991; in 1997 an appellation for Domfront with 30% pears was created. |
| posted by Wine Addict @ 11:16 PM |
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