Apple brandy

Spirits distilled from fermented apple mash — the apple world’s answer to grape brandy. The benchmark is Calvados from Normandy, governed by appellation rules on cider-apple varieties, distillation and oak ageing, with American applejack its historic New World cousin. Production follows the classic spirit sequence: pressing, fermentation of the juice into cider, distillation to concentrate alcohol and aromatics, and maturation in oak that builds colour, vanilla notes and smoothness. Quality rests on the apple blend — bittersweet cider varieties give depth that dessert apples cannot — plus clean fermentation and careful cut points in the still.