Chris has been travelling to Normandy for the D-Day commemorations for nearly 20 years now. For the last 3 Andrew has come along for the ride as well. This year we took a 1942 Dodge as our only mode of transport to visit our friends in the Calvados distilleries and to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-day landings. It was a chance to bring a bottle of our Arran Cask matured calvados back home to Normandy and share with a few friends.
Our labels tell a story about the liquid inside the bottle. There’s always a link to either the cask type, the flavour profile or the location of the distillery. For our Arran Cask matured Calvados, this link requires a little more explanation. That’s why we thought it best to take a bottle back to Normandy to help explain the story better. Obviously a very necessary task….

The label is our way of helping to tell the story of Pegasus Bridge. The Bénouville Bridge as it was originally known, is about 40 minutes to the west of the Christian Drouin distillery where this Calvados was produced. The bridge was the first part of France to be liberated on D Day in 1944 as part of an incredible airborne operation.

Landing in gliders on the East bank of the canal, the Ox and Bucks light infantry, successfully took the strategically important Bénouville (Pegasus) Bridge. The code words used to declare the successful capture of the Pegasus and Ranville (Horsa) bridges was “Ham & Jam” and that’s why those words appear on the label, they’re not the tasting notes! 2 hours later the 7th parachute regiment dropped in to help hold the bridges until the arrival of Lord Lovat’s Commandos at dawn.

As this is regarded as one of the most successful allied airborne operations of the time, we’ve used the airborne colours of maroon and blue with the Pegasus wings on the dog. We thought this label might be a way to tell this amazing story to a different audience. If you want to find out more there’s a brilliant museum beside the bridge with a full sized glider and lots more. We’d recommend popping into Café Gondorée for a coffee while you’re there, where you might meet Madame Gondorée who was little girl on the night this all happened, and who’s family still own the café.

So there you go, beautifully tasty Calvados, with a free history lesson!

The Dodge on the beach at Arromanches

A piper plays at the British memorial. 

Our calvados next to the bridge that inspired the label.