Calvados Berneroy XO (40%, OB, 2016)

• Category: Calvados
• Origin: Calvados Berneroy
• Bottling: Official
• ABV: 40%
• Cost: £39.83

What they say

Calvados Berneroy

Calvados, one of the world’s finest spirits, has been produced in the historic French region of Normandy for at least five centuries.
The Calvados Berneroy Master Blender employs time-honoured methods and finely honed expertise to create a range of distinctively fruity calvados, capturing the very essence of the local orchards.

Calvados Berneroy XO

Rich & Complex

Calvados Berneroy XO is the oldest calvados in the range – rich with complex flavours of baked apples and subtle oak with a long, memorable finish. Savour neat, as an after-drink, or on the rocks.

Official tasting notes:

• Eye: Rich golden amber
• Nose: Vanilla and butterscotch notes with a hint of citrus and light rancio
• Palate: Baked and caramelized apples with buttery, slightly nutty notes and a touch of cinnamon and spice. Smooth, round and lingering.

What I say

Calvados Berneroy is made to the AOC Calvados regulations, over 180 named apple varieties are used and the must or juice fermented for a minimum of 4 weeks producing a highly aromatic dry cider of around 5-6% ABV. This is distilled in a copper column still via single distillation. Calvados Berneroy is aged exclusively in older, ‘seasoned’ barrels to preserve its genuine aromatic intensity and to avoid it becoming over-oaked. Over time, its distinctive aroma of fresh apples evolves to develop more complex aromas of butter, vanilla, baked apples and liquorice. The XO is matured for a minimum of 6 years before blending into a consistent House style.

My tasting notes:

• Appearance: Golden russet (13/20), numerous medium-fine tears leave long fine legs
• Nose: Fresh apple, a dusting of icing sugar, tobacco leaf, toffee apples, caramel candies, softer sweet poached or baked apple, apple sauce and butterscotch candies.
• Taste: Creamy, butterscotch, caramel, almost buttery with a hint of salt caramel, caramel apple granny dessert, toffee apple and baked apple, cinnamon hints of spice preced a touch of oak wood, quite fruity overall.
• Finish: Medium, green apple skins, drier oak wood and tannin spices, a liberal dusting with sweet icing sugar and cinnamon spice.

Overall

Fruity and sweet with a creamy palate, quite gentle with the fruit balanced against oak wood tannin and spices.

Score 84/100

Shop for Calvados Berneroy XO (opens Master of Malt)

Don’t take my word for it:

Bloggers submit a link to your review