Deep in the rolling hills of Kentucky, where bourbon has been made pretty much the same way for two hundred years, something wild just happened. Bardstown Bourbon Company took some of their oldest whiskey—11 and 12-year-old stock—and let it sleep for another 28 months inside barrels that used to hold Calvados, the famous apple brandy from Normandy, France. The result is called Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish, and it’s the kind of bottle that makes a grown man stop scrolling and lean in closer.
Most bourbon guys know Calvados only as that fancy apple stuff the Europeans sip after dinner. Back in the 1600s the French government actually banned distilling it in certain areas just to protect Cognac sales. That should tell you how seriously they take it. The barrels in this release came from Christian Drouin, a house that’s been making Calvados for three generations and has racked up nearly 300 gold medals doing it. When those empty 59-gallon casks crossed the Atlantic and showed up in Bardstown, Master Blender Dan Callaway treated them like they were made of gold.
“Over the course of the past two years, these five barrels have become the apple of my eye – the most attention per barrel project aging in Bardstown,” Callaway said. “The result: a cross-continental conversation in a glass that bridges centuries of tradition on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Here’s what they did, step by step. They started with a custom blend of bourbon already aged 11 to 12 years. That whiskey went into the used Calvados barrels for a full 28 months. After that long nap, they moved it one more time into fresh, medium-toast American white oak to round everything out. What came out is 104.2 proof of pure curiosity.
Open the bottle and the first thing that hits you is apple—real apple, not that fake candy stuff. Then the bourbon muscle shows up: caramel, baking spice, roasted almond, a little vanilla, and something like fresh cider on a cold morning. It drinks smooth for the proof, with a long finish that keeps flipping between Kentucky corn sweetness and that bright Normandy orchard snap.
This is the third and final Distillery Reserve drop for 2025. The first one, Cathedral 300-Year-Old French Oak, got featured on 60 Minutes. The second, finished in rare Hokkaido Mizunara oak from Japan, walked away with Best Bourbon honors from both Rolling Stone and Esquire. If you missed those, good luck—they’re already gone for most mortals.
Normandie comes in a 375ml bottle, same small format they’ve used all year, priced at $99.99. It goes on sale Black Friday, November 28, 2025, but only at the distillery gift shop in Bardstown and the tasting room in Louisville. Quantities are tiny. They made just five barrels total.
If standing in line the day after Thanksgiving isn’t your thing, Bardstown Bourbon is running a digital raffle through their email list. Winners get a shot at buying the full 2025 trilogy—Cathedral French Oak, Hokkaido Mizunara, and this new Normandie—all at once. Some packages even include a guided tasting with Dan Callaway himself. You have to be signed up at BardstownBourbon.com to get the details when they drop.
A lot of distilleries talk about “innovation.” Bardstown actually does it. They built one of the most advanced plants on the Bourbon Trail, turn out contract distillate for big names who shall remain nameless, and still find time to chase crazy ideas like shipping apple-brandy barrels across an ocean just to see what happens.
For the guys who’ve got a shelf of the usual suspects—your Blanton’s, your Weller, your Booker's—this Normandie release is the one that makes you rethink what bourbon can be. It’s still 100% Kentucky bourbon at heart, but now it’s carrying a passport and a story most bottles will never have.
If you’re anywhere near Bardstown the day after Thanksgiving, set an alarm. If not, get on that email list tonight. Bottles like this don’t sit around long, and twenty years from now the guys telling stories at the bar will be the ones who managed to grab one.
Sometimes tradition isn’t about doing things the same way forever. Sometimes it’s about having the guts to try something nobody else thought of—and nailing it. Bardstown Bourbon Company just did exactly that, one Calvados barrel at a time.
