What is calvados?

Calvados comes exclusively from the distillation of cider or perry. Grain, grapes or added alcohol have no place in it.

According to the INAO, the area has 230 permitted cider apple varieties and 121 pear varieties for perry. Distillation must end below 72% alcohol by volume. At European level, calvados falls under category 10 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/787, cider spirit and perry spirit: minimum 37.5% alcohol, at most 1,000 grams of methanol per hectolitre of alcohol of 100% vol, no addition of alcohol, no flavouring and at most 15 grams of sweeteners per litre. The AOC rules go beyond that with 40% alcohol.

Twenty-four months in oak is the minimum for the AOC Calvados, counted from the moment the eau-de-vie goes into cask.

The cahier des charges prescribes sessile oak or pedunculate oak for this. For Calvados Domfrontais the lower limit is higher: at least three years in oak casks. At sale, every calvados must have at least 40% alcohol by volume.

Calvados Pays d’Auge was recognised in 1942 as the first appellation for cider eau-de-vie and requires double distillation in an alambic a repasse.

The broad AOC Calvados extends over 1,566 communes entirely and 228 in part, in the departments of Calvados, Orne, Manche, Eure, Seine-Maritime, Mayenne, Sarthe and Oise, among others. Here distilling is permitted both in an alambic à repasse of at most 30 hectolitres and in a continuous column that processes a maximum of 250 hectolitres per 24 hours.

Calvados Domfrontais covers 115 municipalities in the Orne, the Manche and the Mayenne, requires at least 30 percent pear must, allows only column distillation and demands at least three years of maturation in oak.

In 2025, 4,348,000 bottles of calvados went out the door, representing 12,180 hectolitres of pure alcohol and 5.6 percent less than in 2024.

France took 2.25 million bottles of this, a decrease of 7.8 percent; exports came to around 2.1 million bottles, of which the European Union accounted for well over seventy percent. By appellation, this was 8,492 hectolitres for AOC Calvados, 3,531 hectolitres for Calvados Pays d’Auge and 157 hectolitres for Calvados Domfrontais. Pays d’Auge grew by 4.53 percent and Domfrontais by 15.44 percent.

Every age statement on a bottle of calvados is tied to a minimum maturation laid down in the cahier des charges of the AOC.

• Trois etoiles, trois pommes or VS: at least 2 years
• Vieux or reserve: at least 3 years
• VO, vieille reserve or VSOP: at least 4 years
• Hors d’Age, tres vieille reserve, XO, tres vieux, extra or Napoleon: at least 6 years

In Nederland geldt NIX18: alcohol wordt niet verkocht aan wie jonger is dan 18 jaar.