Château du Breuil is a more than 400-year-old castle in the northern part of France, in the province of Normandy. During its history, Breuil has also experienced a period of industrialization, and a mill, a textile factory and a cheese dairy have operated in its courtyard. The castle, badly damaged in the Second World War, was renovated and ten years later a distillery was also established there. After that, the castle changed hands a couple times, until finally in 2020 it was taken over by Frédéric Dussart and his company La Spiriterie Française. The distillery produces calvados, whiskey, rum and also vodka and gin. However, Calvados is still the main product and the company puts 420,000 bottles of it on the market a year. Fine is the youngest Calvados class and is collected from distillates matured for 2-3 years. The 70 cl bottle was on offer in the store for €18.99.
Fine Calvados is light brown in color and resembles lager beer. The smell has a clear and strong aroma of fermented apple cider. The taste is rather light. It has the apple cider aroma with hints of nuts and caramel. There is some sweetness, but also a fair dose of the sharp alcohol burn. It is still a rather young and harsh spirit. The typical aroma of fermented apple wine is rather strong, although Chateau du Breuil is clearly more refined than with the cheapest vs class calvados. Even the manufacturer does not value his Fine/VS class calvados so highly, when directly recommending using it in cocktails and cooking. It is indeed a little too sharp and edgy for sipping, although the taste itself is quite pleasant. Calvados seem to differ from cognacs in this sense. Several VS cognacs are quite pleasant for sipping, but young Calvados is really something that cannot be recommended for that use. Or at least I haven’t come across one yet. When mixed with apple juice and sparkling water, it makes a decent cider-like drink. Chateau du Breuil Fine can be recommended for home bartenders, others should prefer to look for longer matured products from the same manufacturer.
78/100
