Adrien Camut 18 YR Pays d'Auge Calvados

This 18-year-old bottling demonstrates how the Camut family’s solera approach – achieving the virtues of both youth and age – makes for a beautiful Calvados. Brilliant topaz in color, there’s a complex, but warm-hearted nose of strudel, toffee, and roasted nuts, along with the distinctive aroma of fresh apple peel. On the palate, it’s very precise and linear, with sharp licorice notes balancing the dried fruit and apple pie. That’s followed by a surprisingly fresh and supple finish that brings us all the way back, figuratively and almost emotionally, to the just-picked apple in the orchard. This is a transcendent spirit. Note: Within the next year, Camut will drop the name “Privilège” and bottle this as simply “18 years old.” (AOC Pays d’Auge 41% abv.) 98 Points  Jason Wilson, Vinous November 2018

Adrien Camut is widely regarded as the top calvados producer in Normandy. For seven generations, the Camut family has grown 25 varieties of apples at the Domaine de Semainville, located in the northeastern corner of the Pays d’Auge. Soils in this part of the appellation are very rich silt and clay, the type of soil that permits the trees plenty of nourishment. The trees here are slightly larger than other areas of the Pays d’Auge and because much of the nutrients go into making the wood of the trees larger, the sugar that goes to the apples is slightly lower, providing a bit more acidity to the fruit. The Camuts are firm believers that this higher acid level within their ripe apples leads to a spirit with more finesse and elegance. Importer Notes