Le Gin Carmina de Christian Drouin 42% 700ml

Christian Drouin Sr. purchased a country property in the Pays d'Auge area of Normandy in 1960 — a farmhouse with cider-apple orchards already planted. He worked with Pierre Pivet, a licensed itinerant distiller well known across the northern Pays d'Auge, to begin distilling Calvados from the cider produced on the property. The first twenty years were entirely production-focused: Drouin Sr. made Calvados year after year and let the spirits mature in his cellars without any commercial release. Sales and distribution began only in 1979, when his son Christian Drouin Jr. set out to build the brand.

The estate operates from a historic 17th-century Pays d'Auge farmhouse, the appellation's oldest and most demanding Calvados sub-zone. The Pays d'Auge AOC requires double distillation in copper pot stills (rather than column distillation, as permitted in the broader Calvados appellation), which Drouin practises rigorously. Apple varieties for the cider include sweet, bitter and acidic types blended for fermentation; the resulting cider is double-distilled, then aged in French oak — typically Limousin and Tronçais — for periods ranging from 2 years (Fine) to 40 years (Hors d'Âge and millésimés).

Guillaume Drouin, the third generation, joined the family business in 2004 as a qualified oenologist and agronomist. Under Guillaume the house has expanded into Calvados-cask gin (Le Gin) and recovered Comte Louis de Lauriston Calvados Domfrontais — a separate Calvados sub-appellation made with pears alongside apples, requiring a distinct distillation profile. The current range covers Fine, VSOP, Hors d'Âge, Pomme de Tronçais (oak finish), and a roster of single-vintage millésimés from the 1980s through to recent years. Over 280 gold medals at international spirits competitions span the back-catalogue.