Domaine du Promenoir Calvados Hors d’Age 1998

I purchased this bottle directly from the producer at a farmers market in Normandy a few years back. At the time they had a few vintages to sample: this 1998, one from the early 90s, and one from the late 80s. We sampled all of them and this was the fruitiest, so I bought it. Let’s see if I made a good decision. 

Smell: sweet ripe apple then some astringent wood and acetone. After several minutes in my glass, there’s baked peach and a musty note as well.

Taste: starts with sweet (but not suspiciously so) apple, transitioning quickly to tart apple. Some some oaky bitterness creeps in too. Texture is just a tad thin.

Finish: Apple skin and seeds. Fairly tannic. Ends very dry, almost like apple pulp that has had all the juice pressed out of it.

Overall: No bells or whistles, just well-made, unadulterated apple spirit aged in decent French oak casks that still had a bit of life left in them. This almost certainly had some water added to reduce the bottling proof, but I’m glad they didn’t take it all the way down to 80.

Spirit Type: Calvados
Proof: 84.2
Vintage: 1998
Age: 18
Cask Type: French Oak (Reused)
Rating: B

Domaine le Chaou à Perquie 1987 (Fitte et Laterrade for K&L)

The story goes that le Chaou a Perquie (otherwise just known as le Chaou) is Domaine Charron distillate that was bartered off to someone else who aged it in new French oak casks and let it hang out in their cellar for 30+ years before it was discovered and purchased by the small independent bottler Fitte et Laterrade. There were only two vintages produced, 1987 and 1988, and K&L bought all of it for release during the 2019 yak season. I purchased a bottle of each, a small amount of which I sampled out, but most of which I poured down my own gullet.

Smell: heavy on the lacquer and varnish notes with hints of Honey baked ham and cinnamon. With a little water, some plum jam peeks out.

Taste: lots of oak up front with some Dimetapp grape sweetness along with a pretty strong chemical note. The addition of water brings out some tart pomegranate. Texture is good, slightly syrupy.

Finish: very tannic, slightly vegetal, menthol, spiced apple, cinnamon

Overall: I liked this more and more as I worked my way through the bottle. Also, air and water did wonders in bringing out some of the fruitier flavors. I wish I would have picked up a second but alas, I spent my allowance elsewhere (still on Armagnac, mind you). There is a little sour oak in the finish but it is more restrained than in the 1988 (I will review the ’88 at some point).

Spirit Type: Armagnac
Proof: 99
Vintage: 1987
Age: 31
Cask Type: French Oak (New)
Rating: B+