How is calvados made?

How do you make calvados, step by step?

Each of the three appellations follows its own rulebook, but the stages are the same (see the calvados glossary entry). [1]

1. Harvest cider fruit. The harvest runs from September to mid-December. [2] At least 70% of the apple trees must be phenolic varieties, such as bittersweet apples, and perry pears are used too. [1]
2. Mill and press. The fruit is mashed and pressed; the must needs at least 78 g/L of natural sugar, and adding sugar is not allowed. [1]
3. Ferment. The must ferments into cider in tank. [2] Pasteurisation, carbonation, acidification and sweetening are banned, and the cider must reach at least 4.5% ABV. [1]
4. Wait. At least 21 days between pressing and distillation, or 30 days for Calvados Domfrontais, where fermentation must be "slow and autonomous", with no added yeast, nutrients or heating. [1] [3]
5. Distil in copper. Pot or column stills must be copper, and the spirit comes off at no more than 72% ABV. [1]
6. Age in oak for at least 2 years, or 3 for Domfrontais. [1] [3]
7. Blend and reduce to at least 40% ABV for sale. [1]

How do pot and column stills differ for calvados?

In a pot still, the cider is distilled twice: the first run gives the "brouillis" at 28–30% ABV, and after five or six such runs the brouillis is distilled again to collect the heart, the "bonne chauffe", at no more than 72%. [2] Pot stills hold at most 30 hl. [1] A column still works continuously: one section strips the alcohol from the cider, the other concentrates it. [2] Columns are limited to 250 hl of cider a day. [1]

Why it matters: the rulebooks credit copper and the 72% cap with keeping fruity aromas. [1] Double distillation gives Pays d'Auge notes recalling cider apples and cider, while the column gives Domfrontais a generally higher level of volatile compounds. [4] [3]

Which still does each calvados appellation use?

	Still	Minimum fermentation
Calvados	Pot or column [1]	21 days
Calvados Pays d'Auge	Double distillation in a pot still [4]	21 days
Calvados Domfrontais	Column [3]	30 days

For orchard rules and minimum ages by appellation, see what is calvados.

What happens in the cask?

Ageing is only in oak. [1] Some houses start in new 250–600 litre barrels and move the spirit to older casks, some of them 100 years old; others go straight into large used vats of 1,000–10,000 litres. [2] Each cellar must keep at least 15% of its capacity in casks of 20 hl or less. [1] The colourless spirit turns golden then amber, with notes of cooked apple, vanilla, honey, spice or walnut, and some volume evaporates as the angels' share. [2]

How is calvados blended and brought to 40%?

The cellar master blends eaux-de-vie of different ages, harvests and terroirs, then brings the strength down gradually with purified water; this is called reduction. The blend rests for several months before bottling. [2] Finishing adjustments to the spirit are allowed only if their effect, measured as obscuration, stays below 4% vol; for Domfrontais the rulebook names caramel for colour and sweetening to round off the taste. [1] [3] Cask-strength bottlings are not reduced. [2]

The age on the label refers to the youngest spirit in the blend; the categories are in what calvados is. A vintage year is the year of distillation. [5]

Related answers: what calvados is · calvados vs applejack · what cider brandy is

Find it on Cider Radar

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• Guide: how cider is made
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Cider, perry, calvados and pommeau are alcoholic drinks. Enjoy responsibly and follow the legal drinking age where you live.