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Note · Gourmand notes

Calvados

Small glasses of golden brandy and red apples on a tray
Golden brandy and apples, evoking calvados

Photo: congerdesign (new tab) / Pixabay (new tab)

Calvados is an apple brandy aged in oak casks. In perfumery, its accord combines baked apple, wood and a spirited warmth, somewhere between fruit and liqueur.

What it brings

A fruity, boozy warmth with glints of apple.

Origins and uses

Calvados is a brandy from Normandy, made by distilling cider or perry. There are three appellations: calvados, calvados pays d'Auge, distilled twice, and calvados domfrontais, which contains at least 30 per cent perry. It must age for at least two years in oak casks, hence its amber colour. Young, it is appreciated for its freshness and fruitiness; aged, it reveals woody and caramelised notes.

In perfumery, calvados is evoked by a recreated accord combining baked apple, wood and an alcoholic warmth, between fruit and liqueur. It tends to sit at the top, where it brings a warm roundness to amber, spicy or woody compositions.

In our catalogue, calvados opens Overture 41 by Amouage, with incense, saffron and cinnamon, before a heart of benzoin, rose and geranium.

Text written with the help of AI, based on reference sources: encyclopedias, raw-material manufacturers and official information from the fragrance houses.

Material profile

Nature
Perfumer’s accord
Origin
A cider brandy from Normandy, evoked in perfumery by an accord.
How it is obtained
Recomposed by the perfumer
On Volute
1 fragrance

The fragrances that reveal it

In the same family · Gourmand notes

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