Pierre Huet Calvados Pays d'Auge Tradition 15 ans

A Calvados from the Pays d'Auge, the heart of Normandy's apple country. The Huet family has been making apple spirits at the Manoir La Brière des Fontaines in Cambremer, on the Cider Route, since 1865, and the estate is now run by the fifth generation. Its 30 hectares of orchards grow more than 25 varieties of cider apples.

Calvados Pays d'Auge AOC is the strictest Calvados appellation and allows double distillation only. The apple must is fermented for 12 months in oak vats, then distilled twice in a traditional copper pot still heated with wood chips produced on the estate, keeping only the heart of the distillate. Tradition 15 ans is aged for at least 15 years in oak casks.

The producer describes it as the great classic of its range, combining the strength of a Hors d'Âge with the roundness of an old Calvados. Tradition 15 ans won a gold medal at the Concours Général Agricole in Paris in 2024 and silver medals in 2023, 2019 and 2011, and it has been selected by the Hôtel Ritz in Paris.

Serve at 18–20 °C as a digestif, in a Calvados or tulip-shaped glass.