Lelouvier, Calvados Fine, NV

Normandy never got the memo about grapes. Calvados is apple brandy: orchard fruit fermented into cider, then distilled and rested in oak, and it is Normandy's answer to every whiskey ever made. 'Fine' is the entry rung of the Calvados ladder, requiring a minimum of two years in cask, which means this is young enough to still taste like fruit but aged enough to have shed its rough edges. Drink it the way the French do at the table, as the trou normand, the mid-meal shot that resets the appetite. Or pour it neat at cool room temperature, drop it over one big cube, or stir it into anything you'd otherwise build with bourbon.