Apple spirit

Apple spirit
Superalcolici
Magazine: May 2008

You write “Cider” but you read “Calvados”. Everything starts from cider apples and there are more than a 100 varieties. Those suitable for the production of the distillate drink are only 48, produced following a precise percentage: 40% of sweet apples, 40% of bitter apples 20% of sour or acidic. The origins of this drink are uncertain. The fi rst offi cial writing in which cider distillation to obtain an apple brandy is mentioned goes back to the XVI C. The preparation is elaborate. The apples are picked in October and the must is left to ferment to obtain the cider, which is then subjected to a double distillation. Calvados is then put in wooden casks to mature and it is in this phase of the production that it develops its fl avour.