The production of Calvados in 5 steps by Pierre Guillotte
Pierre Guillotte is a local producer from Bolleville in Normandy, he explained to us the five main and essential steps to produce Calvados.
From our conversation with Guillotte on the production of this spirit, we discussed about the process of commercialization for the Calvados in France.
AOC, which stands for Appellation d’origine contrôlé is the French certification for designation and provenance, on spirits such as wines, brandy, among other edibles as cheese, butter and other agricultural products. Calvados is in fact labeled AOC. Furthermore, Mr Guillotte explains that the Calvados must be analyzed before placing it into the market. After this analysis, a jury will confirm and validate its quality, during a process of 20 different steps.
These are the main steps to produce DIY Calvados :
Step 1 : First, harvest different varieties of apples to have a good cider. Once you have a good cider, you can have a good cider brandy which could eventually, sometimes, immediately become Calvados.
Step 2 : Second, extract the pulp from apples and press to obtain apple juice.
Step 3 : Third, let the juice ferment to obtain distilled cider, after the sugar is fermented into alcohol.
Step 4 : Next, distill the cider in a still to obtain cider brandy. Once the sugar has transformed into alcohol, which means density zero sugar, we can proceed into boiling the produce.
Step 5 : Last, to obtain calvados it is necessary to carry out aging in barrels for at least three years. It must be at minimum at 70° to be recognized as Calvados.
Don’t drink and drive. Enjoy responsibly.