Vintage Calvados Apples & Other Fruit and other Eaux-de-Vie & Fruit Brandies
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There are many different types of fruit brandies, and exact definitions are sometimes unclear.
Eau-de-vie, a French phrase that means literally "water of life", generally refers to a distillation of any fruit other
than the grape, that has an alcohol content of around 100% proof. The spirit is often colourless, since it is either
bottled immediately after distillation, or stored in glass-lined casks or earthenware containers. This method of
storage retains the intense fruit flavour and maintains the high alcohol content.
The famous apple brandy from Normandy, calvados, is distilled from good quality apple cider fermented for a
minimum of one month (by which time all the sugar has gone) and then aged in cask, sometimes for as long as
20 or 40 years.
Other well known fruit brandies and eaux-de-vie are kirsch or kirschwasser, made from cherries, Poire William
made from pears, Slivovitz from plums, framboise from raspberries and fraise from strawberries.


Vieux Calvados Du Pays D'Auge 1921
A very rare early Calvados from the 1921 vintage, probably bottled in the late 1950's or early
1960's. Perfect seal, perfect level, perfect labels.
Click on thumbnails to see enlarged images.
SOLD
A circa 1910 Guillot
Kirschwasser, with a superbly
intense ripe cherry nose.
Decanted into sample bottles..
Click on the thumbnails to see
larger images.
SOLD
A very rare bottle of Justerini &
Brooks Peach Brandy, circa 1890.
An amazing spirit, with an intense
ripe peach aroma that filled the
room the instant the bottle was
opened.
SOLD
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The second oldest recorded
Calvados vintage still surviving -
two magnificent bottles of Huet
1865.
Old calvados is a very special
taste, and pre-war bottles are
much harder to find than
equivalently old cognac or
armagnac.
Click on the thumbnail to see an
enlarged image.
SOLD
Roger Groult Calvados Reserve Ancestrale Vintage 1864
Roger Groult Calvados Reserve Ancestrale Vintage 1865
Roger Groult Calvados Reserve de Mon Grand Pere Vintage 1893
Groult is one of the finest
producers, and together with
Huet, one of only a handful
whose 19th century stocks
survived into the modern era.
The above vintages were
released in minute quantities
many years ago, and are long
since depleted (they still
produce a Reserve Ancestrale
and a Reserve de Mon Grand
Pere, but not vintage dated
and made from later 20th
century Calvados).
ALL SOLD.