Review #30: Calvados Coeur de Lion Selection, 40% abv, NAS, and Calvados Adrien Camut 6yr, Pays d'Auge, 40%.

I want it to taste like apples

Here is the cheap stuff that I usually buy, and the opposite end of the spectrum, more or less.

Coeur de Lion costs almost nothing, is available everywhere, and is delicious. Adrien Camut is the prestige producer in Calvados, but this is, I think, the bottom of the line for him/them: the 6yr old. I prefer younger Calvados, in part because older Calvados often turns out to be a waste of money, but mostly because I prefer the taste of fresh apples. (One possible explanation: I'm allergic to raw apples, so this is my big chance.) Older Calvados is sometimes sublime, but more often tastes like generic spirit that's been in a barrel for a long time.

So, given that I prefer the young stuff, the question is whether it could be worth it (about 2.5x) to go for the fancier, estate-grown and estate-distilled bottling from the Pays d'Auge.

Coeur de Lion Selection (I doubt it's much more than 2yr old)(I think it's double distilled even though it doesn't have to be)

Spicy, winey apples on the nose, with a little lemon and gravel. (These are tart, green apples.) Mouthfeel is a little watery, but held up by some oaky bitterness and vanilla. Some barrel spices -- cinnamon, esp. -- on the finish, but mostly more winey green apples. Apples are good!

score: 81

(but what have I been drinking recently that 40% seems so watery?)


Adrien Camut Pays d'Auge 6yr

really, really annoying wax seal. darker color.

more intense on the nose, but not as winey. instead, it's more grassy and oaky -- almost maltlike, except for the intense apple smell. a little yoghurt, candle wax, and some minerals. a strange oiliness: linseed? and then a little bit of soot, I'd swear, and back to a complex apple-ness.

a lot more substance on the palate: it's rich and oily. the fresh apple notes are there, but mixed in with barrel spices and old, wet hay, buttermilk and pepper. the finish is all over the place: oat cookies and cheese, vanilla, oak tannins, sweet and tangy apples, even some plums. and it keeps going. and going.

this is a lot more interesting than my simple but beloved apple brandy. I'm not sure that I wanted interesting, but maybe I do. it's going to take some getting used to, but this is awfully good stuff.

score: 85, maybe more