Calvados + Caroni. A beautiful symphony - our Rome blogger Thomas Heie Nielsen tells us

Christian Drouin, in collaboration with Luca Gargano, has experimented with finishing aged Calvados in ex.-Long Pond, ex.-Hampden, ex.-Savanna and ex.-Caroni casks. In 2020, six recently emptied Caroni casks that had contained Caroni rum from 1996 were refilled with 17-year-old Calvados. The Drouin winery needed to find a Calvados that was powerful and complex enough to resist the aromas of the old Caroni barrels. After 8 months of finishing in these barrels, the balance was in place and Christian Drouin Caroni Angels was born.
Color: Beautiful golden chestnut.

Aroma: You can sense both the apple brandy and an underlying Caroni imprint on the nose. I smell freshly pressed ripe sweet summer apples, dark spices, a bit of lacquer, a little rubber and chemical notes. The last is evident Caroni the barrel, which has left its mark. There's also a touch of nuts, a bit of citrus, dried apricot, marzipan and freshly baked sourdough bread. It's really nice to sit and smell for a long time.

Taste: Wow... It's really a competent and complex flavor. I actually taste more Caroni than Calvados and I really like that. Caroni The flavor notes are the classic ones, fusel/petrol, eucalyptus, rubber, chemical and medicinal notes. But underneath all this complexity is the delicate taste of apple brandy, baked apples with brown sugar and sweet juicy crisp summer apples in a delicate distillate.
Conclusion: I have tasted a lot of Caroni rum and also some rum that has been aged in Caroni casks. It's not always the case that aging in Caroni casks provides enough complexity and authenticity from Caroni the rum for my taste. But here they have really hit it out of the park. There is a really nice Caroni character to this Calvados. Both in scent and flavor. I was very surprised when I opened my sampler and poured it into the glass to smell and taste. I hadn't expected such a big Caroni impact. The bottling is limited to 1506 bottles. And that's for the whole of Europe. So you should probably not wait too long if you want to taste your first (and perhaps last) Calvados aged in Caroni barrels. In terms of price, we are about half a country times higher than a regular good Calvados from Christian Drouin. But I also think it's money well spent. This is not an apple brandy that you should sit and chop down ice cold at the Christmas party. It is a glass that you should enjoy at the end of the evening, perhaps instead of a good Cognac with your coffee or just instead of a good glass of rum.

BUY EXPERIMENTAL DE CHRISTIAN DROUIN 17 YEARS CARONI ANGELS SMALL BATCH NO. 6 FRANCE CALVADOS 70 CL 40%