CHRISTIAN DROUIN
‘COEUR DE LION’

Le Lieu Saint-Pierre, 14130 COUDRAY RABUT
Tel: 02 31 64 30 05, Fax: 02 31 64 35 62
www.coeur-de-lion.com

Agricultural producer (and merchant) of high quality award-winning calvados Pays d’Auge, cider and pommeau. Extensive range of vintages. Cellar door sales. Guided tours.

In 1960, Christian Drouin senior purchased the estate of Fiefs Sainte-Anne on the hill of Gonneville close to Honfleur. Starting out as a hobby, his goal was to produce one of the best calvados of the Pays d’Auge. His son Christian Drouin, yes, they have the same name, joined his father in 1969, after having spent 10 years abroad (several in Canada) and gained international experience. It was not until 1979 that stocks were considered sufficient to start marketing and selling the calvados. Today Drouin has built a reputation worldwide as one of the top producers and 70 percent of the production is exported mostly to USA, Japan, Germany, Scandinavia and Italy.

In 1991–92 Christian Drouin transferred most of the installation at Gonneville to its present location at Coudray-Rabut close to Pont-l’Evêque. Originally an old stud farm from the seventeenth century he baptized it Domaine Coeur de Lion and carefully restored it. Today it contains production and ageing facilities (there are barrels everywhere), as well as a house for visiting parties, a tasting room and sales room. Guided tours are also arranged. Over the years the number of visitors have grown (over 25,000 in the year 2002) and August is the most crowded time.

Christian Drouin is one of calvados’s most well-known characters and a skilled marketing man. Drouin produce high quality traditional blends but also an extensive range of vintages. These come from his own family stocks but also from a collection of very old calvados acquired when estates of well-known producers have been sold. These vintages are stored in old barrels; some spend their last years in another cask to gain character, like a used Sherry or Port barrel. For some of these vintages Drouin is a ‘merchant’, meaning he raises and sells calvados that he bought from others. He has an exceptionally fine nose for it and has been successful in offering a whole range from 1939 to 1979.

For his own production, the apples are supplied by the orchard at Fiefs Saint Anne and supplemented by neighbouring farms. Traditional varieties with low yield are used. The harvest of apples is carried out by shaking the branches, making the fruits fall on a cover installed under the tree. The apples are then hand picked and put in bags of hessian. The fruits are stored for a few weeks in order to reach their optimum point of maturity. At Domaine Coeur de Lion, a traditional orchard with high-stems was planted between 1991 and 1993 but will not be in production until 2005–2010.

Drouin have two stills. In the yard is a travelling still, built in 1946 by its former owner Pierre Pivet. If you visit the domain from mid-February to June, you have a great chance to see it in action. In fact, it consists of two stills, 500 and 600 litres, assembled in one construction and works with both gas and wood (Drouin says the aromas from the wood fire are picked up by surrounding barrels). The mobile still is one of the last of its kind in operation and used to travel the Pays d’Auge countryside until the mid-Seventies. Today it is fixed and since 1993 in the company of a traditional type alembic ‘charentais’ installed in one of the houses. This has a capacity of 12 hectolitres and operates with gas.

The cellars contain primarily small oak barrels, which allow more exchanges between wood, calvados and the air, thus an accelerated ageing. Every corner of the estate is full of barrels, some are 100 years old and several have interesting stories. An example is a cask from 1948 that had been kept in a cellar underground. When Drouin took it above ground it evolved rapidly during 5 years to an equal of 30 years and was a great success.