The Calvados Trio with their
Terroirs & Appellations

Formerly divided into “Appel­la­tions d’Ori­gine Régle­mentée”, there are now three Appel­la­tions d’Origine Con­trôlée (AOC) for Calvados.

The orch­ards used for its pro­duc­tion extend over 8,000 hec­tares and includes 230 vari­et­ies of cider apples and 139 vari­et­ies of perry pears selec­ted for their high poly­phen­ol con­tent and agro­nom­ic qualities.

Three appel­la­tion areas have been demarc­ated by the Insti­tut Nation­al des Appel­la­tions d’Ori­gine (INAO). All the oper­a­tions involved in the pro­duc­tion of the spirit must be car­ried out within each of these geo­graph­ic­al areas: har­vest­ing of the apples and pears, cider and perry making and dis­til­la­tion, and the ageing of the eau-de-vies. A series of ana­lyt­ic­al and organ­o­leptic con­trols accom­pany the dif­fer­ent stages of the pro­duc­tion of the three Calvados appellations.

This area has an ocean­ic-type cli­mate char­ac­ter­ised by fairly small vari­ations in tem­per­at­ure and abund­ant and reg­u­lar rainfall.

The apple and pear orch­ards can be grown as high or low stem orchards

High stem: the orch­ards have a max­im­um dens­ity of 280 trees per hec­tare with a min­im­um spa­cing of 5 metres between trees. The max­im­um aver­age yield of these orch­ards is 25 tonnes per hectare.

Low stem: the orch­ards have a dens­ity of more than 280 trees per hec­tare and less than or equal to 1,000 trees per hec­tare with an aver­age yield of 35 tonnes per hectare.

At least 35% of the fruit used to make Calvados comes from high stem orchards. 

There is no man­dat­ory method of dis­til­la­tion for Calvados, but it is mainly pro­duced by column still (con­tinu­ous distillation).

The most common soils are shal­low clay-lime­stone lying on slopes and the ocean­ic cli­mate main­tains a low range of temperatures.

At least 45% of the fruit used to make the Calvados comes from high stem orchards.

The ciders for dis­til­la­tion con­tain a max­im­um of 30% perry pears. The use of a pot still is mandatory.

The Dom­fron­tais region is situ­ated in the south­ern part of the Normandy bocage and extends over com­munes mainly in the Manche, Orne and May­enne depart­ments. The main fea­ture of this region is the high pro­por­tion of perry pear trees grown in high stem orch­ards. These trees that are open to the wind can grow to a con­sid­er­able size (15m in height) and they give this region an iden­tity unlike any other in France.

The cli­mate in this area is ocean­ic, char­ac­ter­ised by fairly low vari­ations in tem­per­at­ure and mainly west­erly winds.

High stem trees rep­res­ent at least 80% of the orchard’s planted area and the pro­por­tion of pear trees planted must be great­er than or equal to 25% of the total area of the orch­ards on the farm.

The high stem orch­ards have less than 250 apple trees per hec­tare, less than 150 pear trees per hec­tare and a min­im­um spa­cing of 6 metres between the trees. The max­im­um aver­age yield is 25 tonnes per hectare.

Low stem orch­ards have less than 1,000 trees per hec­tare with an aver­age yield of 30 tonnes per hectare.

Calvados Dom­fron­tais is obtained by a simple con­tinu­ous dis­til­la­tion using a column still. It is aged for at least three years in oak bar­rels before being released for sale.