What is the difference between calvados and apple brandy?

No. Calvados is a protected designation of origin from Normandy, apple brandy is the broader legal category that calvados falls under.

The relationship is that of a part to a whole. Every calvados is apple brandy, but by no means every apple brandy is calvados.

Apple brandy is the everyday Dutch name for what European law describes as a category of its own: distilled from cider and perry, in the English text of the regulation cider spirit and perry spirit. That category says only what must be in the bottle, not where the fruit grew.

Calvados says both things about it. The name is a designation of origin and, on top of the product rules, sets requirements for the area, the fruit, the distillation and the maturation.

Category 10 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/787 requires distillation of cider or perry only, to less than 86 percent vol., with at least 37.5 percent alcohol in the bottle.

The regulation sets hard limits here. The distillate must derive its aroma and taste from the fruit and contain at least 200 grams of volatile substances per hectolitre of 100 percent alcohol by volume. The methanol content may not exceed 1,000 grams per hectolitre of 100 percent alcohol by volume.

Adding alcohol is prohibited, diluted or undiluted. Flavouring is not allowed. Sweetening to round off the taste is permitted up to at most 15 grams per litre, expressed as invert sugar, and for colour only caramel may be used.

An apple distillate that meets this may therefore legally be called apple brandy, wherever the apples were grown.

The cahier des charges of the appellation d’origine contrôlée Calvados requires a defined area, cider and perry fruit, at least 24 months in oak and at least 40 percent vol. when sold.

The area consists of municipalities in the departments of Calvados, Manche and Orne, with parts of Eure and Seine-Maritime and smaller parts of Mayenne, Sarthe and Oise. The centre of gravity lies in Normandy, but the boundary follows the list of municipalities, not the provincial border.

As for the fruit, only apples and pears qualify for cider and perry brandy; dessert apples are excluded. The juice may not be enriched with sugar and rectification of the distillate is prohibited.

Maturation takes place in oak casks and runs from the moment the eau-de-vie is put on wood. The current cahier des charges was approved by decree (arrêté) of 17 December 2021.

The designation is reserved in the cahier des charges for eau-de-vie from the delimited area. Outside that area that condition is missing and there is no right to the name.

The regulation governs how this carries through to the label. Article 10, paragraph 2 provides that a spirit drink that meets a category uses the name of that category as its legal denomination. Article 10, paragraph 5 allows a geographical indication to supplement or replace that legal denomination, provided the drink meets the corresponding product specification.

An apple distillate from the Netherlands, from Normandy outside the list of communes, or from elsewhere in Europe can therefore meet category 10, but not the cahier des charges. The label should then carry the category name, not calvados.

That also explains why producers outside the area choose names such as appelbrandewijn, apple brandy or their own regional designation.

The label states whether the bottle may use the designation of origin: then Calvados, Calvados Pays d’Auge or Calvados Domfrontais is written in full, with an alcohol content of at least 40 percent.

If that name is missing, you read the category name or a trade name, and only the lower limit of 37.5 percent from the regulation applies.

In the shop at Brink 2 in Bathmen there are 44 items on the calvados shelf, from 13 brands, with alcohol levels from 40 to 48.8 percent. Forty of those items come from France.

Twijfelt u bij een fles of u met een oorsprongsbenaming of met de bredere categorie te maken hebt, loop dan binnen of bel. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar: NIX18.