Wood unveils Ambres

Can you introduce yourself and the Distillerie des Ambres?

I trained as an agri­cul­tur­al engin­eer and first fell in love with Calvados while doing sea­son­al work at Calvados Huet. I honed my skills as a cellar master on the job, then com­pleted spe­cial­ized courses. I was also close to a member of the Schlum­ber­ger Primat family, des­cend­ants of Françoise Primat, who pro­duced Calvados at the Manoir des Ambres since the 1950s. Driven by Justine Primat, we rebuilt the dis­til­lery with a new pot-still, ded­ic­ated aging cel­lars, and a fer­ment­a­tion facil­ity cap­able of pro­cessing our 150-ton apple har­vest. Although we only began com­mer­cial sales in 2022, we bene­fit from over 50 years of in-house stock.

Do you work with specific apple varieties at Distillerie des Ambres?

I don’t think Calvados can be made from a single vari­ety, we work in groups of vari­et­ies. That’s dif­fer­ent from cider or Pom­meau de Nor­man­die, where the fruit’s aromas shine through dir­ectly. Still, we have a real favor­ite: an unre­gistered local vari­ety we call Belloy des Ambres, which we pre­served when replant­ing. More broadly, we (the pro­du­cers) favor acid­u­lated apples because their nat­ur­al acid­ity helps lower the pH, lim­it­ing unwanted bac­teri­al growth during fermentation.

Is it necessary to make good cider to obtain good Calvados ?

Abso­lutely yes! It all starts in the orch­ard with healthy, prop­erly stored apples. If the trees are dis­eased or the apples poorly stored, the cider will be unbal­anced, often show­ing higher volat­ile acid­ity, and that defect car­ries right through to the spirit. Fer­ment­a­tion is then a key stage: this is where the aromas that dis­til­la­tion will con­cen­trate are formed. But even with a top-qual­ity pot still and every pos­sible tech­nic­al adjust­ment, you cannot turn bad cider into great apple brandy.

At Dis­til­ler­ie des Ambres, our style is built on pre­ci­sion at each step. We har­vest apples by vari­ety into 350 kg palox bins to con­trol ripe­ness and san­it­ary qual­ity. Fer­ment­a­tion takes place in stain­less-steel tanks, which offer more flex­ib­il­ity than bar­rels. Our pot still is fitted with an auto­mated heat­ing system for pre­cise con­trol of dis­til­la­tion cuts. For mat­ur­a­tion, the team exper­i­ments with vari­ous cask types to ensure our apple brandy reflect our philosophy.

What types of casks do you use and how do you ensure consistency in your batches?

We mainly use reused casks (Pineau, Cognac, Calvados) and less than 10% new oak, which gives a very dis­tinct­ive aroma. The cooper­age market is quite tight, so we buy based on oppor­tun­it­ies, paying close atten­tion to the sulfur levels : sulfur acts as an anti­ox­id­ant and anti­sep­tic, but too much can alter the taste of Calvados.

There is also the method developed by Valéry Des­frieches, who refur­bishes used bar­rels to achieve wood that remains active yet bal­anced. Given the vari­ety of cask pro­files, we create blends that help smooth out dif­fer­ences and build a sig­na­ture style.

Can you explain what blending is?

Blend­ing starts on paper: I review my invent­ory and select three or four age batches (4, 5, or 6 years old for Ambre No. 1). Some­times, I include a small amount of an older batch because it can really trans­form the blend, but eco­nom­ic factors also have to be considered.

Then, I head down to the cellar: I sample and taste each batch (look­ing at color, aroma, tex­ture). Once I have my base, I take many breaks because the palate gets a bit “fatigued” after about an hour. A blend can there­fore take sev­er­al weeks to finalize.

After all, every cask has its own story and dif­fer­ent impact depend­ing on its jour­ney… there’s no fixed for­mula, the goal is to express our sig­na­ture style.
Blend­ing relies on rig­or­ous mon­it­or­ing of the aging pro­cess. Every time I visit the cellar, I observe, taste, and take notes: aroma devel­op­ment, oak influ­ence, tan­nins… This allows me to inter­vene if a batch evolves too quickly.

What are the keys to developing Calvados consumption?

I believe our gen­er­a­tion needs to revive norman pride around cider-based spir­its by high­light­ing the terroir and con­tinu­ing to mod­ern­ize the image.
When it comes to tast­ing, the main thing is to break down taboos: chilled glasses or ice cubes, a twist of lemon, cock­tails… in the end, do whatever you want, there are no strict rules. What mat­ters is open­ing our french apple brandy up to dif­fer­ent drink­ing occa­sions without betray­ing its identity.