What is pommeau?

Pommeau is made by fortifying fresh apple must with calvados, which kills off the yeast and leaves the natural sugar in the must.

The ratio is around two thirds must and one third calvados. The specification of Pommeau de Normandie requires calvados of at least twelve months in oak casks and with at least 65 percent alcohol. The mixture itself then goes into the cask, for at least fourteen months.

That method is called mutage. You will also find it in French grape-based mistelles, where fresh grape must is mixed with wine alcohol.

Pommeau contains 16 to 18 percent alcohol and the natural sugar of the apple, whereas calvados is a distilled apple brandy without residual sugar.

Both come from the same Normandy orchards and often from the same house. Calvados goes through the still; pommeau is not distilled, but blended with calvados and then aged.

That is why you pour pommeau in a larger glass than a shot glass, and chilled. Calvados goes in small amounts at room temperature.

Pour pommeau chilled as an aperitif, at around 8 to 10 degrees, in a stemmed glass.

In Normandy it also goes with melon, with foie gras and with mature cheese. After the meal it suits apple pie or a dessert with nuts.

Because it contains residual sugar, pommeau is fuller than a dry aperitif. A small glass is enough. If you open a bottle, keep it cool: at 16 to 18 percent alcohol, pommeau keeps for a shorter time than calvados.

France has several pommeau appellations; Pommeau de Normandie and Pommeau du Maine are listed together in the French decree of 29 October 2009.

Pommeau de Normandie received its recognition in 1991. The area follows the Normandy orchards, with a large share of bitter and bittersweet apple varieties from orchards designated for this appellation.

Pommeau du Maine has its own specification. Both work on the same principle: fresh must, fortified with the apple brandy of its own region.

On the label of a pommeau you read the appellation, the alcohol percentage and sometimes the number of years the bottle spent in cask.

If only the word pommeau appears without an appellation, the rules of that appellation do not apply. The designation Pommeau de Normandie stands for the fourteen months of wood and for the range of 16 to 18 percent alcohol.

Some houses leave their pommeau to age much longer. A longer maturation is then stated as an extra mention on the label, next to the appellation.