Christian Drouin 17 ans d'âge Savanna Angels - Calvados Pays d'Auge

Volume: 0.7 litres | Alcohol content: 47.5% | Chill filtration: Yes | Colouring: No

Special Features:

Savanna Angels brings together the long maturation of a Calvados Pays d'Auge and a rum-cask finish from La Réunion. For this edition of the Expérimental series, Christian Drouin selected an already robust, 17-year-old Calvados with roasted apple notes. It then spent six to nine months in casks that had previously held Savanna traditional rum aged between nine and fourteen years. The lightest of the distillery's three rum categories was deliberately chosen.

The collaboration builds on the first experiments with Savanna rum casks in 2009. Even then, Guillaume Drouin was interested in their spicy influence on Calvados. The current edition was bottled in July 2025 at 47.5%, with a release of 2,046 bottles.

Tasting Notes:

• Nose: Vanilla and praline initially lead the nose. Musk and dried fruit emerge with time.
• Palate: On the palate, the Calvados is intense yet slender, with pronounced spice.
• Finish: Notes of brown sugar and baked apple coat the palate on the finish.

Distillery/Bottler:

The story of Christian Drouin began in 1960 with the purchase of a farm near Gonneville-sur-Honfleur. Together with distiller Pierre Pivet, Christian Drouin senior initially built up stocks of long-aged Calvados; sales did not begin until 1979. In the early 1990s, production moved to Coudray-Rabut near Pont-l'Évêque. Guillaume Drouin, an agricultural engineer and oenologist, joined the family business in 2004 and took over its management in 2013.

For its Calvados Pays d'Auge, the house distils cider twice in a pot still with a capacity of 2500 litres. Heads and tails are separated during both runs, with the cut points adjusted to the particular cider. The maturation cellars mainly contain small casks that have often been used several times before. Christian and Guillaume Drouin taste every cask each year to decide on its further maturation and use. This general approach underpins the targeted cask selection for the Expérimental series.

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