This month’s booze reviews have included a rum (this Amrut) and an armagnac (this Cardinat). Might as well make it a full month of non-whisky reviews. Here now is another brandy, albeit a Calvados. I’ve not reviewed a Calvados in a while—the last one was this 15 yo from Domaine Montreuil, which I reviewed in October 2023. Today’s review is also of a 15 yo, though the age is not mentioned on the label of this release from Toutain. The label only says “Hors d’Age” but it seems pretty common knowledge that the brandy inside is a minimum15 years old—that’s what pretty much everyone who sells it notes. Toutain sits on the border of the Pays d’Auge production region of Calvados and the question of which region their Calvados is actually from is a little complicated. I purchased this bottle—along with another of their releases—in Europe some years ago. At the time their releases were not sold in the US. Now, however, they are; indeed, their Hors d’Age is available if you look around online—though at a price that is quite a bit higher than I paid for it. At any rate, this means that my review will not be as useless as usual for my predominantly US-based readers. Let’s get to it.

Toutain Hors d’Age (40%; from my own bottle)

Nose: Rich notes of apple: both freshly squeezed juice and baked in pastry with some cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. As it sits, there’s some brown sugar as well, and just a bit of polished oak to provide a frame. Not much change here with time.

Palate: Comes in here with the spice leading the way; the apple notes are in the middle and the oak emerges as I swallow. A good drinking strength and texture. Spicier as it goes.

Finish: Long. The oak yields a bit to the fruit and then has the last word again. Spicier here too with time.

Comments: Back when I purchased this bottle (and a few others) from Europe, I was teetering on the verge of developing a serious interest in Calvados. It didn’t quite happen—largely because so little Calvados is available in the US and shipping spirits from Europe became both more complicated and expensive. When I drink something like this easygoing pleaser though, I feel a bit wistful. Ah, well—there’s no shortage of things to drink on my shelves, even if very little of it is Calvados.

Rating: 85 points.