Comte Louis
de Lauriston

Created to put a stop to illegal Calvados production in the Domfrontais region, the Calvados Comte Louis de Lauriston cellars now house the forgotten treasures from the time of illicit distilling, along with a unique range of vintages from several decades which are exported to over 20 countries.

The Dom­fron­tais region has always been the home of family farm­ing with numer­ous small farms sep­ar­ated by rutted tracks and bordered by impen­et­rable hedges. The Normandy Bocage with its rugged ter­rain proved to be the ideal ter­rain for boot­leg­gers. Here, Calvados was hast­ily pro­duced on windy winter nights, when no-one would be out to check the leg­al­ity of the dis­til­la­tion. And then one night, in 1962, gov­ern­ment offi­cials burst in on the boot­leg­gers hard at work. Within an hour, the neigh­bour­ing farm­ers, who had some­how got wind that one of their own was in danger, star­ted show­ing up. Over­whelmed by the crowd, the offi­cials were forced to line up against the walls of a stable in the glare of the head­lights of the tract­ors and cars arranged in a semi-circle around them. Seeing that things were taking a turn for the worse, Count Louis de Laur­is­ton, the then Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al of the Farm­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion, was aler­ted and he arrived on the scene to find a way out of the situ­ation. After long nego­ti­ations, it was agreed that the fine imposed on the boot­leg­gers would be can­celled on the con­di­tion that a cellar was cre­ated and sup­plied with Calvados that com­plied with all the cus­tom­ary oblig­a­tions. Count Louis de Laur­is­ton agreed to be respons­ible for this project.

In 1962, Count Louis de Laur­is­ton cre­ated the Chais du Verger Nor­mand in Dom­front to handle the dis­tri­bu­tion of the Calvados pro­duced by the Dom­fron­tais farmers.

In 1992, the Chais du Verger Nor­mand joined forces with Chris­ti­an Drouin S.A. for the pro­duc­tion and mar­ket­ing of their Calvados, per­ries, ciders and pom­meau. As part of this agree­ment, Louis de Laur­is­ton gran­ted Chris­ti­an Drouin rights to the “Comte Louis de Laur­is­ton” brand on the con­di­tion that the qual­ity of the Calvados remain abso­lutely flawless!

In 2008, Guil­laume Drouin took over from Maurice Chevret as Pres­id­ent of the cellars.

Loc­ated in Dom­front in the Orne, the cel­lars offer 25-minute tours that are free for indi­vidu­al vis­it­ors but with a charge for groups of over 20 vis­it­ors. During the tour, vis­it­ors learn all about Calvados pro­duc­tion and blend­ing, the vin­tages (a house spe­ci­al­ity), as well as Pom­meau, per­ries and apple ciders.

At the end of the tour, which includes a tast­ing of many of the Louis de Laur­is­ton products, vis­it­ors can pur­chase and take home a selec­tion of the cellar’s finely-craf­ted products avail­able in its shop.