Calvados (brandy) - Producing Regions and Legal Definitions

Producing Regions and Legal Definitions

Like many French wines, Calvados is governed by appellation contrôlée regulations. There are three appellations for calvados:

• The AOC calvados area includes all of the Calvados, Manche, and Orne départements and parts of Eure, Mayenne, Sarthe, and Eure-et-Loir.
  • AOC calvados makes up for over 70 percent of the total production.
  • Minimum of two years ageing in oak barrels.
  • The terroir, geographical area, is defined.
  • The apples and pears are defined cider varieties.
  • The procedures in production like pressing, fermentation, distillation and ageing is regulated.
  • Usually single column distillation.

• The more restrictive AOC calvados Pays d'Auge area is limited to the east end of the département of Calvados and a few adjoining districts.
  • Extensive quality control—the basic rules for AOC calvados together with several additional requirements.
  • Aging for a minimum of two years in oak barrels.
  • Double distillation in an alembic pot-still.
  • Produced within the designated area in Pays d'Auge.
  • A minimum of six weeks fermentation of the cider.
  • Flavour elements are controlled.

• AOC calvados Domfrontais reflects the long tradition of pear orchards in the area, resulting in a unique fruity calvados. The regulation is similar to the AOC calvados and the column still is used.
  • A minimum of 30 percent pears from the designated areas is used.
  • A three-year minimum of ageing in oak barrels.
  • The orchards must consist of at least 15 percent of pear trees (25 percent from the sixteenth harvest).

• Fermier "farm-made" calvados—some quality minded producers both inside and outside the Pays d’Auge make "calvados fermier", which indicates that the calvados is entirely made on the farm in a traditional agricultural way according to high quality demands.