Christian Drouin: mastering the balance of tradition and innovation

The Christian Drouin brand has a rich history. Could you tell us more about it?

Our estate was foun­ded in the 1960s by my grand­fath­er after he acquired a farm in Gon­neville-sur-Hon­fleur. He began dis­tilling and aging Calvados without com­mer­cial­iz­ing it, cre­at­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant stock. In the 1980s, my father took over and shif­ted the focus to export. Today, we are present in 65 coun­tries and count pres­ti­gi­ous hotels and Mich­elin-starred res­taur­ants among our cli­ents. As for me, after gain­ing exper­i­ence in wine in France and rum in Haiti, I joined the com­pany in 2004 and have been lead­ing it since 2014.

What sets your brand apart from other Calvados producers?

We strive for excel­lence, as evid­enced by the many medals we’ve received over three gen­er­a­tions. One of our unique fea­tures is our vin­tage col­lec­tion, which spans almost every year since 1961.
Innov­a­tion is also in our DNA. In the 1980s, my father launched the ‘imprisoned apple’, a bottle with a whole apple inside, and in 2003, we cre­ated ‘Blanche,’ an unaged Calvados. More recently, we developed an exper­i­ment­al ‘finish’ range, where our Calvados ages in bar­rels that pre­vi­ously held whisky, rum, or tequila, in part­ner­ship with other renowned distilleries.
Finally, our pro­duc­tion philo­sophy is built on strong choices, such as using small casks instead of large vats for aging, which pro­mote better inter­ac­tion with the wood, and pre­serving our high-stem orch­ards, typ­ic­al of the Pays d’Auge. We work with about fifty vari­et­ies of cider apples, each with its own pro­file, but some, like Mettais and Domaine, which are more tannic, are essen­tial for our ciders and our Pom­meau de Normandie.

Was taking over the family business an obvious choice for you?

Not at all! My grand­fath­er passed on his pas­sion for wine to me, and at 15, I decided to become an oen­o­lo­gist. But I needed to build myself out­side the cider world. My exper­i­ences, par­tic­u­larly in Haiti at a rum dis­til­lery, made me real­ize the com­plex­ity of aging spir­its. I then real­ized that Calvados offered a fant­ast­ic playground.

How do you see the future of Calvados and your brand?

Calvados has all the qual­it­ies to attract even more people: a rich his­tory, aro­mat­ic com­plex­ity, a sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion method, and strong local roots. But to fully exploit this poten­tial, we need to intensi­fy our com­mu­nic­a­tion efforts. As for our brand, it will con­tin­ue to rely on excel­lence and innov­a­tion, always in line with our identity.

A memorable tasting memory?

My father told me that when I was three years old, he caught me tast­ing the Calvados fresh out of the mobile still in the yard. Not some­thing to rep­lic­ate at home, but appar­ently, I had already approved the qual­ity of the products!

And your favorite cocktail?

A cider cor­di­al from the Pays d’Auge with Calvados VS and a twist of lemon. Simple and deli­cious. Oth­er­wise, I really enjoy sour-style cock­tails for their bal­ance between sweet­ness, acid­ity, and strength. Adding a touch of Béné­dict­ine gives them an irres­ist­ible local flavor.