Michel
Huard

Apple growers and producers of vintage Calvados for seven generations in the Orne Bocagev countryside.

The Huard family has been living in the vil­lages of Caligny and Mon­tilly sur Noir­eau, on the edge of the Suisse Nor­mande (in the south­w­est of the Calvados depart­ment) for 7 gen­er­a­tions. The set­ting is typ­ic­al of the Orne Bocage, with its hedgerows, mead­ows, orch­ards, streams and strik­ing schist and sand­stone houses.

The Huard farm ori­gin­ally prac­tised tra­di­tion­al mixed agri­cul­ture with live­stock and plant crops.
Nowadays, even though the cider-based pro­duc­tion, includ­ing the AOC Calvados, is the main activ­ity, the estate has pre­served a herd of free-roam­ing dairy cows to main­tain the 18 hec­tares of south-facing high stem orch­ards and meadows.

Proud of his Calvados and con­vinced that it deserved a place along­side the most pres­ti­gi­ous “diges­tifs”, Michel Huard, the grand­fath­er of Jean-François Guil­lou­et-Huard, the estate’s cur­rent owner, star­ted selling his Calvados in Paris in the 1950s. The years have been and gone, but the philo­sophy of Maison Michel Huard has remained the same: to pro­duce the highest qual­ity eau-de-vies, allow­ing time to do its work and inter­ven­ing as little as pos­sible in the pro­duc­tion pro­cess to enable the terroir to express itself to the full.

Fol­low­ing in his grand­fath­er Michel Huard’s foot­steps from a very young age, Jean-François Guil­lou­et-Huard took over the family estate in 2004. Pas­sion­ate about his craft and proud to have inher­ited his grandfather’s know­ledge, he is determ­ined to honour the work of his pre­de­cessors. Qual­ity is still, and always will be, the corner­stone of Maison Michel Huard’s philo­sophy. Jean-François has recently installed a new 300 m² cellar where he will age his Calvados for many years to con­tin­ue to pro­duce the highest qual­ity vin­tage Calvados for our drink­ing enjoyment.

Today, through hard work and a love of the craft, Michel Huard Calvados are very highly regarded and the famous Vin­tage Calvados are served in the most pres­ti­gi­ous estab­lish­ments in Paris and around the world.