Château du Breuil, Looking Ahead

Can you tell us about your background and what led you to Château du Breuil ?

After a career in tech­no­logy in Paris, I felt the need to return to some­thing more tan­gible and visual. Like many from the Paris region, I fell in love with Normandy. I was first struck by its rolling land­scapes, and soon cap­tiv­ated by its gast­ro­nomy, her­it­age, and eco­sys­tems. Château du Breuil offered a unique oppor­tun­ity to live this pas­sion every day.

What is the history of the Château and what does it mean to you ?

Château du Breuil is a 16^th-cen­tury res­id­ence loc­ated in Le Breuil-en-Auge (Calvados), listed as a His­tor­ic Monu­ment. The estate has had sev­er­al lives : in the early 19^th cen­tury, it housed a cheese fact­ory, which was later replaced by a chocol­ate fact­ory until 1946. Then, the Saf­frey com­pany set up a cider house, which Phil­ippe Biz­ou­art trans­formed into a Calvados dis­til­lery in 1954.
Today, the estate pro­duces Calvados as well as other spir­its under the La Spir­i­ter­ie Française label.
As for me, I live in the castle, which is quite spe­cial: in a place so steeped in his­tory, you don’t really feel fully at home : there were people here before me, and there will be people after me. I see myself more as a pas­sen­ger, entrus­ted with pre­serving this her­it­age and pre­par­ing the ground for those who will come next.

What makes Château du Breuil Calvados unique?

It all starts in the orch­ard : the health of the apple trees and the bal­ance of the eco­sys­tem are essen­tial. We keep our own bees, whose pol­lin­a­tion plays a cru­cial role in pro­du­cing our cider apples. Then comes dis­til­la­tion, where we make very pre­cise “cuts” to ensure impec­cable quality.
There is also the shape of our bottle, which is unique and deeply tied to the Château’s his­tory. Ori­gin­ally, a castle was a place of defense, and it had a bell to warn of danger. Our bottle echoes that bell, a nod to the past.

What experiences do you offer visitors, and who are they for?

We wel­come around 40,000 vis­it­ors each year, which encour­ages us to offer a wide range of activ­it­ies: guided tours, tast­ings, cock­tail or blend­ing work­shops, and cor­por­ate events. For the past two years, we’ve also launched summer happy hours, which have been very pop­u­lar, attract­ing around 200 people per even­ing. We plan to extend the concept into winter with a sheltered space.
Tast­ing tours tend to appeal to vis­it­ors over 50, from around the world. In con­trast, our cock­tail work­shops and happy hours attract more people aged 30–40 : many of whom are locals coming with friends or family, the chil­dren play in the park while the adults enjoy a Calvados cock­tail. This is espe­cially reward­ing, as it allows local res­id­ents to recon­nect with the Château du Breuil.
In this way, Calvados becomes a living product, rooted in its terroir and local traditions.

How do you see the future of Calvados, particularly through tourism?

My greatest wish is for people to feel trans­por­ted into the spirit of Normandy when enjoy­ing Calvados : its gast­ro­nomy, rolling land­scapes, eques­tri­an world, beaches… everything that defines the region. A simple par­al­lel can be drawn with other iconic spir­its, like pastis taking us to Mar­seille or a spritz on an Itali­an ter­race. Calvados should also evoke this sense of place and experience.
Spirit tour­ism is a real oppor­tun­ity to restore pride and vis­ib­il­ity to the product. Host­ing vis­it­ors, telling the story behind a cuvée, and con­vey­ing an emo­tion : that is our mis­sion, both in France and in more than 65 coun­tries worldwide.
Ulti­mately, this chal­lenge depends on a simple con­di­tion : pro­du­cing high-qual­ity Calvados. Com­mu­nic­a­tion and digit­al tools are levers we must col­lect­ively strengthen to carry this emo­tion­al story, without ever com­prom­ising the qual­ity of our apple brandies.

Do you have a favorite cocktail?

I belong to the gen­er­a­tion that prefers to taste Calvados neat, at room tem­per­at­ure, to fully appre­ci­ate its aro­mat­ic com­plex­ity. But if I had to choose a cock­tail, it would be the Apple Mojito, as it best evokes this Normandy ima­gin­a­tion for me.