Christian Drouin Calvados
The story of Drouin calvados began around 1960. There was nothing to indicate the Christian Drouin the elder, an industrialist from Rouen, was destined to make a career in spirits. Nothing, that is, apart from his taste for good food and good wines. When he bought a farm in Gonneville he decided to use the cider apple orchards to produce calvados. His aims were simple: produce a top-quality spirit, the best. "My father transmitted to me the calvados virus", says the younger Christian Drouin, who has today given the family business a world-wide reputation. The brand is now sold as far a field as the USA and Japan in more than 40 countries. The third generation is now hard at work. It maintains the traditions that have enabled the estate to become one of the 100 "sites of excellence in taste" selected by the ministry for culture. In 1995 the European foundation awarded the estate its European Prestige Grand Prix for the whole of its production, which represents the quintessence of calvados.