What is the difference between calvados and cognac?

Calvados comes from fermented apple or pear juice, cognac from fermented grapes.

The product specification of the AOC Calvados only allows the distillation of cider or perry. At least twenty-one days must pass between pressing the juice and distilling, so that fermentation can do its work.

For cognac, wine goes into the still, with an alcohol content of 7 to 12 percent. That settles the difference between the two already at the raw material: apple and pear versus grape.

Calvados comes from Normandy and seven neighbouring departments, cognac from the Charente and Charente-Maritime with small parts of Dordogne and Deux-Sèvres.

The AOC Calvados area covers municipalities in eight departments: Calvados, Eure, Manche, Mayenne, Orne, Oise, Sarthe and Seine-Maritime. The centre of gravity lies in the Calvados department.

In both cases the same requirement applies: planting and harvesting, pressing, distilling and maturing must all take place within the demarcated area. An eau-de-vie distilled outside it may not bear the name.

Cognac must always go twice through a copper still; under the broad appellation Calvados it may also go through a column in a single pass.

The specification of the AOC Calvados names two permitted methods: redistillation in an alembic with a still of at most 30 hectolitres, or continuous multi-stage distillation with reflux in a column. Calvados Pays d’Auge allows only double distillation in copper, Calvados Domfrontais only the column.

For cognac there is no choice. The alambic charentais is fired over an open flame and must be made of copper, from pot to cooling coil, and distillation takes place in two runs. Calvados stays below 72 percent alcohol, and cognac may not come out above 72.4 percent at 20 degrees after the second run.

Calvados and cognac must both mature for at least two years in oak, but Calvados Domfrontais needs three.

For the AOC Calvados and for Calvados Pays d’Auge, twenty-four months in wood applies, counted from filling the cask. Calvados Domfrontais, the appellation where poiré pears are mandatory, comes to at least three years.

According to the specification, cognac matures without interruption and exclusively in oak casks, and must be at least two years old before it goes to the consumer. Distillation must be finished by 31 March of the year after the harvest at the latest; from that reference date the compte that tracks the age begins.

Calvados and cognac both go on sale at a minimum of 40 percent alcohol, while the European lower limit for their categories is 37.5 percent.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 places apple wine eau-de-vie and pear wine eau-de-vie in category 10 and wine eau-de-vie in category 4. Both categories may be sold from 37.5 percent.

De drie calvados-appellations en de AOC Cognac leggen die lat hoger en eisen 40 procent bij het in de handel brengen. De 44 flessen calvados in Bathmen lopen van 40 tot 48,8 procent. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan klanten onder de 18 jaar, NIX18.

VS and VSOP stand for the same minimum age in both worlds, but XO and Hors d’Âge are four years higher for cognac than for calvados.

For calvados, VS requires two years, and VO, vieille réserve and VSOP require four years. Hors d’Âge, XO and Extra may appear on the label from six years.

For cognac, VS corresponds to compte 2 and VSOP to compte 4, so likewise two and four years. XO and Hors d’âge require compte 10 there. An XO calvados and an XO cognac therefore do not mean the same thing: six years versus ten.