Latest news with #Calvados
Business Journals
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Journals
Events? Gifting? Look to the artistry of the Hudson Valley
If you've grown tired of corporate gifting and events that feel bland and uninspired, a new option rooted in artistry, passion, and the breathtaking beauty of the Hudson Valley has arrived. Klocke Estate, perched high atop a hill with stunning 360-degree mountain views, offers an earth-to-glass experience unlike any other. This is more than a destination; it's a journey into the world of artisan brandies, vermouths, and ready-to-drink cocktails, all meticulously crafted and presented in elegant, artfully designed bottles. Imagine rewarding your team with a truly memorable and unique experience. Klocke Estate makes that vision a reality, combining its world-class distillery, restaurant, and bar into a single, cohesive destination. The Estate: An Experience, Not Just an Event Klocke Estate founder John Frishkopf set out on an ambitious mission: to merge the time-honored methodologies of French Cognac and Calvados with the distinct terroir of the Hudson Valley, creating a truly unique American brandy. To showcase this artistry, Frishkopf built an entire estate. Every step of the process—from cultivating apples and grapes to winemaking and distillation—unfolds right on the property. The result is a seamless journey where agriculture, innovation, and craft intersect. This immersive experience is now available for corporate events, team-building sessions, or private gatherings. Just an hour from Albany, you and your guests can explore the very heart of the estate, where every detail tells a story. The Spaces and Experiences expand The Restaurant & Bar: Step into an elegant space designed by legendary designer Ken Fulk. Chef Becky Kempter's menu delivers a distinctive country French flair, using locally grown, farm-to-table ingredients. The bar staff complements this with inventive cocktails, each one based on Klocke Estate's exceptional brandies and vermouths. expand The Second-Floor Club/Salon: For a private event with a view, ascend to the salon. This flexible space can be transformed to host anything from a board meeting to a cocktail party to private dining, all while offering spectacular vistas of the Catskills. expand The Distillery: Part steampunk, part Willy Wonka's factory, the distillery is where the magic happens. Here, the distilling team coaxes exquisite spirits from imported Charentaise and Mueller-Pot stills, blending science and a touch of alchemy. expand The Orchards & Vineyards: The sixty acres surrounding the estate are a testament to the founder's vision. They are home to specific apple and grape varieties chosen for their ability to thrive in the local soil and produce exceptional brandy and vermouth. expand The Chai: Modeled after traditional Cognac designs, the "chai"—French for barrel warehouse—is where the brandy ages to perfection. Its post-and-beam construction and thick, straw-insulated walls create the ideal environment for the spirits to mature. The Spirits: Artistry Inside and Out expand Klocke Estate's spirits are the culmination of this dedication to craft. Each bottle is not only filled with a delicious, complex elixir but is also a work of art, making it the perfect gift for clients or employees. Brevis Red & White Vermouths: These aren't your typical vermouths. Designed to be sipped on their own, much like in Barcelona or Madrid, these fortified wines are infused with botanicals for a refreshing and intriguing flavor profile. Flyback Ready-to-Drink Cocktails: Precision and craft in an instant. The Appletini, Brandy Manhattan, and Old-Fashioned embody Klocke Estate's commitment to quality in a convenient, ready-to-go format. Klocke Estate '00' Unoaked Apply Brandy: This limited-edition, first release showcases a fresh, youthful character with bright apple tones. It's twice-distilled in an Alembic Charentaise still, a true expression of the estate's unique terroir. What kind of event or gifting needs are you looking to fulfill? We can help you create a custom package that's truly unforgettable.
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Travel + Leisure
5 days ago
- Business
- Travel + Leisure
This Is One of the Most Underrated Parts of France—and It Has Rustic Charm, Famous Apple Brandy, and Gorgeous Orchards
Fortifiez-moi avec des pommes; car je suis malade d'amour. This line from the Song of Songs appears on a plaque in the orchard of Calvados Christian Drouin. 'Refresh me with apples,' goes the translation, 'for I am sick with love.' Like Champagne and Cognac, Calvados is both a drink—in this case, apple brandy—and a place. The département, one of the five that make up Normandy, covers 2,100 square miles, with a majestic Atlantic coastline unspooling from the Seine estuary to the World War II battlefield of Omaha Beach. Lush cow pasture (cheese is another of the area's culinary calling cards) and tidy orchards cover the interior. A classic half-timbered building on the grounds of Calvados Christian Drouin, in Pont-l'Évêque. From left: Paul Lacheray, chef of the Honfleur restaurant Huître Brûlée; oysters at Huître Brûlée. Since the 1960s, the Drouin family has been distilling the fruits of the land in the heart of the Pays d'Auge, the most exacting of the three appellations in which Calvados can be produced. But when Guillaume Drouin joined the family business in 2004, it was the drink's reputation that needed refreshing. 'It had a dusty image,' he told me. 'It was the bottle of your grandfather.' Drouin's own grandfather, Christian, started as a hobby distiller. By the 1980s, when Drouin's father, Christian Jr., began bottling, 'Calvados was still very regional,' he said. 'Most of it would end up in a cup of coffee.' Drouin joined the business with a mandate to update the spirit's public perception while protecting the family legacy. 'That makes our work interesting. How do you innovate in a very traditional industry?' Octopus with asparagus and yogurt at Aux Saint Jus, in St.-Julien-le-Faucon. From left: A street scene in Pont-l'Évêque; sole with artichokes and olives at Ferme Saint Siméon, an inn in Honfleur. Tradition begins with the apples, 35 heirloom varieties selected over the centuries for natural pest resistance: blush-cheeked Bedans, squat chartreuse Domaines, pink Noel Deschamps stippled with goose bumps. On my October visit to the distillery—located 10 minutes inland from the toylike Trouville-Deauville station, a two-hour train ride from Paris—the harvest was just getting under way. At the Drouin complex, fruit covered the trees and littered the grounds. After tasting some seductive old-barrel brandies, I got swept up, unexpectedly, in an exquisite gin made from the same apples and layered with raspberries and lemon. A view of the Seine from a suite at Ferme Saint Siméon. Tradition and history have been the main currency in Normandy for generations. You can't go there and not do the World War II circuit. Thanks to Scottish-born historian Iain Hennelly, owner of Normandy on Tour, I spent a whirlwind afternoon that began at the Musée du Débarquement, a stark concrete-and-glass box in Arromanches-les-Bains, the village fronting the British Allied landing site of Gold Beach. At Arromanches 360° Circular Cinema, I took in an emotional short film featuring interviews with D-Day survivors. From there, I walked along Omaha Beach, where on June 6, 1944, German gunners camouflaged on the cliffs killed an estimated 2,000 members of the 1st and 29th infantry divisions on this six-mile shoreline. 'It wasn't the ocean that gave it the nickname Bloody Omaha,' Hennelly said, 'but the sand turning red.' Commemorating D-Day on the beach in Arromanches-les-Bains. As a traveler, you can never escape the gravity of Normandy's past. But the region does a wonderful job of acknowledging what happened there, while also celebrating what is happening there. Throughout the départements, I found the past and present in an ongoing dialogue. In tony Deauville, I retraced the steps of the old Franciscan nuns who used to inhabit the grand convent that's become Les Franciscaines cultural arts center. At Restaurant de L'Île Benoist , in Courseulles-sur-Mer, I pried chilled periwinkles and whelks from their corkscrew shells in a dining room overlooking the oyster ponds that chef Sébastien Benoist's family has farmed since the 1950s. In Honfleur, a harbor town favored by the Impressionists, I stayed at Ferme Saint Siméon. The family-owned Relais & Châteaux inn has a gracious lawn overlooking the estuary, bathrooms furnished with steam showers and full-size Molton Browns, and a hygge tavern, Bistro Le Boucane . The old loft above the restaurant was the winter address of Claude Monet, who painted four snowscapes of the road outside the erstwhile inn in the late 1860s. World War II enthusiasts in Canadian uniform outside the Musée du Débarquement, in Arromanches-les-Bains. From Saint Siméon, I followed the same route Monet would have walked, down into Honfleur, a knot of galleries and candy shops around a picturesque marina where the Seine drains into the Atlantic. Before opening Huître Brûlée in 2018, chef Paul Lacheray, who grew up in Honfleur, and his wife, Chloe Woestelandt, would go to Paris to eat in ingredient-conscious, natural-wine-pouring bistros and lament that they couldn't find something similar back home. They wondered, Could we do this in touristy Honfleur? 'In the beginning,' Lacheray said, 'everyone told us, 'You're crazy, don't do that.' ' A corner of the dining room at Ferme Saint Siméon. The couple didn't listen. They now tend a charming bolt-hole with bouquets of dried eucalyptus and ivory roses hanging from the stone walls. Just inside the front door, I passed Lacheray hovering over veal kidneys and scallop crudo in the glowing open kitchen. I got the oysters, of course, but I still think about my order of Venus clams, steamed in warm cream with citrusy-floral makrut lime. The main street of the village of Beaumont-en-Auge. The next day, I asked Lacheray for his favorite spots in the region, and he sent me an hour south to Aux Saint Jus , in St.-Julien-le-Faucon, a no-stoplight town of 745 souls. 'Normandy is getting better and better outside the touristic places,' he explained, adding that the less expensive real estate in the countryside allows newcomers to experiment. That tracked with my experience. However much I identified with the bronzed grand-pères obstinately soaking up every last ray of autumn sun on the beach, I kept retreating inland. From left: The entrance to Les Franciscaines, an arts center in Deauville; the building's library. Eccentric characters inhabit the rural villages of the Pays d'Auge, where storybook bridges cross rushing streams and the lampposts are swallowed by blue morning glory. In Beaumont-en-Auge, I encountered the kaleidoscope craftsman Dominic Stora fussing over fragments of mirrored glass in a white optician's coat in his shop, Après la Pluie. In Pont-l'Évêque I met David Raguet, a golf pro who decided to trade tee times for cheese rinds and opened Fromagerie La Dégusterie a few years ago. At Aux Saint Jus, meanwhile, chef Pablo Jacob and sommelier Guillaume Armand are quietly turning St.-Julien into a culinary destination. Even though, as Jacob told me, the coast still gets the bulk of Normandy's visitors, 'we usually have to say no to at least ten people every service because we don't have enough space.' The sun-washed dining room was white and green as a head of romaine and was stacked with wine for retail sale. A chalkboard name-checked the provenance of the house-butchered animals, and there were enough jars of preserved lemons and cornichons to brighten a year of tagines and charcuterie boards. I got lost in a bowl of split-pea, the homeliest of soups, glowed up with crackles of house-made pancetta, lots of good olive oil, and fresh cilantro and dill. Around me, veterinarians, stonemasons, and remote-working Parisians filed in for the well-priced set lunch. 'After COVID, instead of buying a small apartment in Paris, a lot of people bought a house in the country,' Jacob said. (He and his wife were among them.) 'The region used to be considered in an economic decay, but now there's a new dynamic going on.' The main building at Ferme Saint Siméon, in Honfleur. I left Aux Saint Jus refreshed—not with apples but with whole-wheat pasta whose spiral curves caught shreds of succulent braised beef; with spiced and roasted pumpkin in a porridge of red lentils; and, most importantly, with that serial traveler's thrill of discovering gold in the middle of nowhere. A version of this story first appeared in the September 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline 'Fruit Forward .'
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: Evenepoel wins time trial as Pogacar powers into yellow
Tadej Pogacar struck the first blow in his rivalry with Jonas Vingegaard by taking the overall Tour de France lead after finishing second to Remco Evenepoel in the stage five time trial in Caen. Pogacar's performance exceeded expectations and will have hit hard on Vingegaard's Visma‑Lease a Bike team bus, with the double Tour winner now more than a minute behind his Slovenian rival after only five days of racing. 'I was surprised,' Pogacar said of the gap he opened up on the Dane. 'I'm not going to lie. I was not expecting to be so far ahead of him in this time trial. I expected him to be closer to Remco, but maybe he didn't have a great day.' While the Olympic and world time trial champion Evenepoel, riding at an average speed of 54km/h, claimed an expected stage success, Pogacar was the real winner, as Vingegaard's challenge wilted in the heat of the Calvados afternoon. With Vingegaard now under pressure to combat his rival, there may be further tension in the camp, with his American teammate Matteo Jorgenson, winner of the Paris-Nice race in March, just nine seconds behind him. 'I don't have an explanation,' Visma's head of racing, Grischa Niermann, said of his team leader's result. 'Of course, we hoped for more. I guess Jonas didn't have enough power today.' Pogacar, however, was not getting carried away. 'I always have eyes on everybody, not just one guy,' he said. 'You cannot discount all the riders up to top 10 in general classification. 'Jonas is the most hungry to get back time, he's in super good shape, his team's in good form, so they will try, maybe tomorrow or the next day.' Yet there is no doubt the pendulum has now swung in Pogacar's favour. Evenepoel, winner of the 2024 Tour time trial stage to Gevrey‑Chambertin, had predicted he would make up almost a minute on Pogacar and, quickly into his compact position, set off at breakneck pace. Despite winning the stage, the Belgian did not achieve the time gains for which he had hoped. The Slovenian, blindsided by a flying Evenepoel in the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial a month ago, was this time a different prospect. His performance around Caen was much more competitive than expected and kept the Belgian in check, while transforming a slim overnight advantage over Vingegaard of 8sec into a significant 1min 13sec. But on a stage thankfully free of any of the pile-ups that have marked some of the earlier stages, the safety debate still shadowed the peloton, after the Canadian rider Mike Woods, 122nd overall in the Tour, said that race organisers ASO 'love crashes'. Writing on his blog, the 38 year old Woods, a stage winner in the 2023 Tour, said: 'Despite their claimed attempts to make the sport safer, one gets a sense – when watching any highlight reel they create – that blood, broken bikes, and some poor bastard walking into an ambulance are what they love to sell.' Another casualty of earlier crashes, Emilien Jeannniere of France, who was catapulted into the crowd barriers in the stage to Dunkirk on Monday, quit the race after it was discovered that he had broken his shoulder, even though he successfully finished stage four into Rouen. 'It's sad to abandon my first Tour, but there are other races and I have to put my health first,' the 26 year old rider said. Others are faring better, with the rising British talents Oscar Onley and the Tour debutant Joe Blackmore quickly finding their feet in this year's race. In contrast, prospects looked gloomier for Ineos Grenadiers with Carlos Rodriguez now languishing in 16th place, four minutes behind Pogacar, after the first time trial. The sixth stage on Thursday, from Bayeux to Vire, includes six categorised climbs and may see more sparring at the uphill finish, on the 14% slopes of the Avenue d'Atlacomulco.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Tour de France 2025: Evenepoel wins time trial as Pogacar powers into yellow
Tadej Pogacar took the race lead in the Tour de France from Mathieu van der Poel, after finishing second to Remco Evenepoel in the stage five time trial in Caen, and opened clear daylight on his key rival, Jonas Vingegaard. While Olympic and world time trial champion Evenepoel, riding at an average speed of 54km/h, claimed an expected stage success, Pogacar was the day's real winner, as Vingegaard's challenge wilted in the heat of the Calvados afternoon. Although Luke Plapp, a Giro d'Italia stage winner, and Vingegaard's teammate Edoardo Affini, had set the earlier pace, by the time the Belgian crossed the finish line in Caen they had both been blown away by Evenepoel's unrelenting speed. But Pogacar's performance exceeded expectations and will have fuelled despondency on Vingegaard's Visma Lease-a-bike team bus, with the double Tour winner now well over a minute behind his Slovenian rival before the first mountain stage. Evenepoel, the winner of the 2024 Tour time trial stage to Gevrey-Chambertin, had bullishly predicted he would make up almost a minute on Pogacar and, quickly into his low compact position, set off at breakneck pace. But it was not the dominant display many had predicted. Pogacar, blindsided by a flying Evenepoel in the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial a month ago, was this time a different prospect. The Slovenian's performance in the roads around Caen was much more competitive than expected and transformed a slim overnight advantage on Vingegaard, of eight seconds, into a significant lead of 1min 13sec.
Eater
09-06-2025
- Business
- Eater
Brandy From New York? This Upstate Distillery Is Counting on It.
Since the brandy distillery Klocke Estate opened last summer in Claverack, New York, the restaurant has been the draw. It's dazzling, situated on a hilltop above 160 acres of farmland, orchards, and vineyards. The seasonal American menu from chef Becky Kempter shows off leek croquettes, a spring cavatelli with ramps, asparagus, peas, and mains like roast chicken or lamb shank. Klocke deserves its spot among the handful of mid-Hudson Valley restaurants that are destinations. Of those, it's undoubtedly the most luxurious. In the dining room, chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling windows cast soft light over myriad textures: crushed velvet and William Morris-style floral designs on the walls, a marble fireplace with a Victorian tapestry hanging above, and exposed wood beams. Tables are situated around a custom glass cabinet in the middle of the room which displays co-owner John Frishkopf's library of brandies, Armagnacs, and Calvados. It's a lush setting to observe the sage-colored Catskills in the distance. Still, the restaurant, Frishkopf says, primarily serves to 'set the table for our brandy.' At the moment, brandy isn't flying off the shelves in the U.S, but Frishkop and his husband, Brett Mattingly, are playing a long game to establish regional brandy's preeminence. It already has provenance: Laird's Applejack in New Jersey, founded in 1780, is the very first distillery in the United States (It's also one of the few legacy brands today run by a woman.) And there's evidence that a man named Jakob Planck brought several stills from Holland to the northern Hudson Valley, around the time brandy was first being exported from Europe by Dutch fleets, in 1638. The state of brandy in the U.S. doesn't daunt the founders. 'Eventually, the brandy we make here in Claverack,' says Caleb Gregg, director of farming and production, 'will sit beside the world's great brandies, specifically Cognac caliber.' Frishkopf, a Boston native, was first inspired to make brandy on the plum and apricot orchards of friends' estates while based in Prague early in his finance career. Returning to the Northeast in his 60s, he wanted to make brandy commercially. The region is one of a few places, he says, where conditions for growing cider apples and grapes were always ideal— for brandy, not for wine. Brandy grapes are harvested earlier than wine grapes, when they have a sugar content (or brix) between 16 and 18 percent. That relatively low sugar produces an alcohol content between eight and ten percent after fermentation, ensuring it will be below 60 percent after distillation. Additionally, lower sugar levels result in higher tannin and acid content, according to Gregg, providing the necessary structure for brandy's prolonged aging process. In 2017, Frishkopf and Mattingly purchased the property. With the help of veteran distiller Dan Farber in California, Cornell University, and expert wine and apple farmers around New York State, they selected 43 varieties of organic cider apples and nine organic white grapes, all suited to the climate and terroir of the Hudson Valley. Mattingly, an MIT grad, raised on a family farm, designed a master plan for planting using a permaculture approach that weaves sustainability and self-sufficiency into the design. In 2020, the team planted the first trees and vines. Despite that most apple growing in the East has moved south due to risks like fireblight, the team remains committed to organic farming — with an eye to bring back cider apples that used to grow in the region for hundreds of years — with the help of old and new technology. They monitor digital wind, temperature, and sun on large flat screens. They implant organic bacteria cultures to battle fireblight, powdery and downy mildew, and other bacterial infections. They position black locusts posts where eagles and red-tailed hawks can sit and hunt larger pests, like voles. As of this writing, four successful grape and apple harvests have been pressed and fermented into wine and cider, and distilled in a copper Alembic Charentais still imported from Cognac. Right after distillation, the spirits are transferred to barrels made from aged French oak, where they will mature for another three to thirty years, depending on the batch. 'It takes patience,' according to Gregg. '...and we may find out, in 25 years, that the grapes we're growing are better suited for younger brandies, for example. That's the fun part.' Consumers might not try the estate's best brandies for decades. Perhaps they'll keep improving long after Frishkopf and Mattingly retire. With hope, they've invested in infrastructure that will outlast them — including the storage facility, the still, and above all, people like Gregg, who, in his late 20s, manages all aspects of brandy production. While customers wait for the first batch of brandy, Frishkopf sees his role as a teacher and host. In addition to the brandy library, they're also producing ready-to-drink vermouth. Klocke currently sells their white vermouth and sweet red vermouths under the Brevis label, three cocktails—an appletini, a brandy manhattan, and a brandy old-fashioned—three eau de vies, and what they call an unoaked brandy, or the Klocke Estate 00. Frishkopf says that their customers will be able to taste the evolution of their brandy over the years, which reinforces the time theme as the through line of the brand. Frishkopf points to the Dutch word for clock as inspiration for the name; the vermouth label Brevis, named after the Latin word for brief; and the ready-made cocktail label, Flyback, named after the term for when a chronograph returns to zero. During dinner service at Klocke, diners often catch magnificent sunsets. It quickly became a tradition for everyone to emerge onto the west-facing patio with their drinks for twenty minutes to stare toward the mountains where Rip Van Winkle mythically fell asleep for twenty years, across land that has fallen in and out of cultivation for generations. Often, the waitstaff and cooks join them, signaling there's no need to rush. Sign up for our newsletter.
