This producer has been dedicated to cider and Calvados production for three generations. Marquis de Saint-Loup Calvados AOC is distilled in a column still giving the Calvados a very fruity and straightforward style. Their Calvados AOC Pays d’Auge, on the other hand, is distilled in a copper pot still which creates a mellow and full-bodied Calvados. Marquis de Saint-Loup cidre is an IGP Cidre de Normandie (indication géographique protégée). To receive the IGP designation, all apples used to make Marquis de Saint-Loup cidre must be an approved variety and must come from a specially certified geographic area.

About Pomme Prisonnière

Christian Drouin had been producing Calvados for 20 years before teaming up with Didier Alleaume, who owned an orchard near Honfleur, not far from Drouin’s distillery. Didier had for years attached bottles to his pear trees, allowing the fruit to grow inside the bottles, which he later filled with Calvados – a cherished local wedding gift. The pear would come from the year the bride met her groom, and as long as the couple kept the bottle topped up with Calvados so that the fruit was completely submerged, their marriage was believed to remain happy.

Christian Drouin persuaded Didier to experiment with apples. After testing 28 varieties, they found a few that didn’t abort too often inside the bottle. Timing was everything: the tiny apple embryo had to be drawn up through the neck of the bottle at just the right moment.

That means Didier and his team work around the clock during a narrow window in May, when it becomes clear which apple embryos will hold. The bottles are initially mounted upside down on a branch above the tiny apple, allowing it to grow upward. Later, the bottles are fixed to the same twig supporting the fruit, and by the end of August, when the summer sun has done its job, the apples and bottles are carefully cut free.

Roughly 50–60% of the apples grow well enough to proceed to the next stage, which includes cleaning the bottles, transporting them to Drouin’s distillery, and filling them with the house’s young 3-year-old Calvados Pays d’Auge. The Calvados then undergoes 12 months of further ageing and flavour development before being released as Calvados Pomme Prisonnière Pays d’Auge.

Tasting notes

Light straw in colour with a golden glow and intense aromatics. The nose bursts with fresh apples, naturally, but also notes of pear, mint, and geranium. On the palate it’s soft, almost restrained at first, full-bodied, and slightly sweeter in profile due to the sugar from the imprisoned apple and the long maceration process – yet still with a gentle alcoholic warmth, mellowed to 40%.