An Introduction To Whisky Matured in Calvados Casks

 

An Introduction To Whisky Matured in Calvados Casks

This will be a two-part series where I explore the use of Calvados Casks used to mature Single Malt Whisky. In Part I, I’ll explain what Calvados is and in Part II, I’ll review two very different whiskies both at least partially aged in Calvados casks.

Introduction To Calvados Casks

What is Calvados?

Calvados is the name of a specific Brandy made in Normandy, North-West France. According to historical records, it has been produced there since the mid-17^th century.

Hold on a minute! – I hear fellow readers crying - FRENCH BRANDY!? How is that kosher!? Well, Calvados is not made from grape wine but from Cider, either solely from apples or a combination of apples and pears, fermented into an alcohol with yeast, and then distilled.

So, there is in fact no Stam Yeinam (non-Jewish wine), issue with Calvados. Moreover, when I asked Rav Akiva Osher Padwa of the London Beth Din, about whether there was a possibility that the same stills used to distil Calvados in distilleries (distilleries in French), in Normandy might also be used to distil grape-based brandy, he answered that this was not a concern.

https://www.tastingtable.com/690031/the-best-calvados-and-apple-brandies-2014/

Similar to grape-based wine where special wine making grapes are used, Calvados producers don’t use the common eating varieties of apples found in the supermarkets, but a combination of four different types of special cider-making apples divided into bitter, bittersweet, sharp, and sweet categories, in order to produce a balance of flavours.

Calvados is aged in French Oak casks for a minimum of two years but typically a lot older than that.

The different Grades of Calvados are similar to that of regular French Brandy:

Grade	Years
VS (Very Special) or Three Stars ***	At least two.
Réserve / Old	At least three.
V.O. (Very Old) / VSOP	At least four.
Hors d'âge / XO	At least six.

It is more common within the Calvados industry when compared to the rest of the French Brandy industry (such as the Cognac region), to see an “Age Statement” on the label when the spirit is more than 9 years old. Many producers release Calvados with a 10-Year-Old statement as well as 15-Years, or even 20-Years or more Age Statements, similar to the Scotch Whisky Industry.

Interestingly, Calvados, like Cognac or wine, might come with a “Vintage Statement” printed on the label as well. This signifies the year of the fruit harvest used to produce the spirit. (This is in total contrast to Vintage Statements used in the Scotch Whisky Industry which counter-intuitively, has nothing whatsoever to do with the year of the barley harvest used to produce the Single Malt but instead, signifies the year that the new-make-spirit was distilled. Yes, it’s confusing!).

Even after a few years, Calvados naturally takes on a medium apricot/Madeira like colour as the spirit matures in the cask. However, as is the case with most French Brandies, adding E150 Caramel colour in order to produce colour consistency from one batch to the next is (unfortunately), very common. This gives the spirit a generic fake orang-y-brown tan. Consequently, most brands of Calvados end up looking pretty much indistinguishable in colour from Cognac.

Some Popular Brands

Fascinatingly, whilst researching into Calvados, I read that in fact, France may not have been the first country to make an apple-based distilled spirit. Records stretching back to the early 17^th-century in Somerset, England, mention the production of Apple Cider Brandy.

Photo from rootbeerjournal.blogspot.com/

Incidentally, if you try ordering “Cider” in Israel, unless you are in a bar, they’ll probably give you a soft (non-alcoholic) Apple drink. This is quite ironic when you learn that the etymology of the word “Cider” comes from the French “Sidre”, which can be traced back to the Greek “Sikera”, which comes originally from the Hebrew word “Shekar” meaning literally - an alcoholic drink!

Calvados Cask Single Malt Whisky

The Scotch Whisky Industry faces a constant challenge to source new Sherry casks as prices continue to sky rocket. Many are looking for alternatives to Sherry casks, something which will give their whisky some lovely fruity flavours while avoiding any negative ones.

Cotswold Calvados Cask

As we know from experience, not all cask types make a perfect shidduch with Scotch Whisky. (I’m not talking about the legend of how the Campbeltown whisky industry collapsed almost overnight in the 1920s because they allegedly started using old Herring barrels).

The jury is out about using Beer barrels like IPAs. Results have been mixed.

Initially, experiments using old French Red Wine casks to mature whisky were a bit of a disaster. The heavy bitter tannins and astringency of the raw grape pulp injected bitter and sour notes into the whisky which did not prove popular. However, thanks to the late Doctor Jim Swan and his development of the STR Wine Cask, he was able to turn those ugly-duckling Red Wine casks into beautiful err, “Swan”-like vessels, more than suitable for maturing the Whisky Industry’s precious liquid.

STR, standing for “Shaving back”, “Toasting” and “Charring”, is a process whereby you remove the top layer of the inside of the wine cask where most of the sour fruit pulp lies, then caramelise the newly exposed wood by toasting and then charring, and combined with the char “cooked” grape flavours produces some lovely sweet spicy toffee notes in the whisky. Some like Tobermory/Ledaig distillery have started making use of STR Wine casks to supplement their Bourbon barrels to great effect.

So, what about Calvados Casks? Will we get results similar to wine-based Brandy or will aging in casks having previously contained distilled spirit from the Pome family of white tree fruits be as enjoyable as being pushed down the “apples & pears”? (Did you see what I did there? A bit of London Cockney Rhyming Slang).

So, the question we need to answer is, how does distilled malted barley spirit interact with a fresh First-Fill Calvados Brandy Cask? Let’s dive in and see in Part II.