POULTNEY, VT | BHAKTA Spirits, stewards of the oldest and largest collection of single vintage spirits globally, announced today the launch of BHAKTA 1989 Pays d’Auge Calvados (SRP $235) — the House of Vintage’s first-ever single varietal Calvados offering. Only 3 barrels will see release.
This inaugural Calvados release from a critically acclaimed benchmark vintage will be joined in-market by the brand’s annual 20 Year and 30 Year Vintage special “decade” offerings for 2025 — BHAKTA 2005 Armagnac (SRP $137) and BHAKTA 1995 Armagnac (SRP $189), respectively — as the highly-awarded producer solidifies its position as the undisputed leader of a global resurgence of interest in luxury brandy.
BHAKTA has long established itself as the preeminent Armagnac importer and authority in the U.S. market, where it leads the category by volume, dollars, attention, consumer discovery, and consumer converts from whiskey. The brand is soon to announce plans to dramatically expand its international market footprint in 2025 and 2026.
Distilled in Normandy’s prestigious Pays d’Auge subregion and borne of 20 cider-specific heirloom apple varieties, BHAKTA 1989 Calvados boasts an astonishing 35 years of age on release. Intensely aromatic, richly layered, and marked by an exceptionally long and complex finish, the limited-drop expression has earned 98 Points and a Platinum Award from the Beverage Tasting Institute, who hailed it as “superlative. . . a benchmark well-aged Calvados.”
BHAKTA 1989 Calvados also symbolizes the Vermont- and France-based House of VIntages’ continued mission to preserve, protect, and popularize heritage brandy categories of luxury and renown— championing rarity and delivering it at global economic scale, while also safeguarding centuries-old French distilling traditions for the edification of future generations of craftsmen and consumers to come.
Like Armagnac and its more polished stepbrother Cognac, Calvados is a highly traditional heritage brandy considered a cultural touchstone of its French homeland. But unlike Armagnac — which is borne of grapes in the southwestern region of Gascony — Calvados is distilled from apples in the nation’s northwestern region of Normandy. Both brandies offer an unparalleled level of complexity and specificity that have together amounted to a major new discovery for drinkers of dark spirits as they trade up into the category.
As this growing demographic of discerning consumers seeks out a sophisticated, ne plus ultra alternative to more “conventional” high-end bourbons, Scotches, and ryes, their discovery of Armagnac and Calvados has created a rising tide across the global brandy category writ large. Only BHAKTA is poised to capitalize on and sustain this trend — both in the U.S. market and abroad.
While symbolizing its first foray into a single vintage, single varietal expression of deeply aged Calvados, BHAKTA 1989 Calvados is by no means the first time the brand has employed this renowned French brandy to great effect.
Ultra-aged Calvados has remained a staple of the BHAKTA Spirits historic House of Vintages collection, playing a key role in acclaimed specialty blends BHAKTA 27-07 (SRP $80) — a blend of Armagnac and Calvados, and one of the brand’s early, now long-sold-out limited releases — and BHAKTA 1928 (SRP $69), now its flagship product. Once the perennial, proverbial “Best Supporting Actor,” Calvados from BHAKTA is now ready to claim the role of “leading man” through this exquisite new single vintage release.
Also now available alongside this latest trinity of rare luxury brandies — 1989 Calvados, 1995 Armagnac, and 2005 Armagnac — is the brand’s complete Fifty Year Collection, which encompasses five decades of time in a bottle, and which includes BHAKTA 1965 Armagnac (SRP $539), BHAKTA 1975 Armagnac (SRP $379), and BHAKTA 1985 Armagnac (SRP $289). Because every life landmark and meaningful milestone deserves to be commended, consecrated, and celebrated with The Spirit of Time — and whiskey lovers are ready to Drink Vintage.
About BHAKTA 1989 Pays d’Auge Calvados ($235)
Tasting Notes
About BHAKTA Spirits
BHAKTA Spirits is the world’s preeminent House of Vintages. Founded by visionary entrepreneur Raj Peter Bhakta — also the founder of WhistlePig Whiskey and Hogsworth Bourbon — BHAKTA offers an ultra-luxury spirits portfolio of limited-release single vintage whiskeys, brandies, rums, and blends, anchored by its ancient and awe-inspiring Armagnac holdings dating back to 1868. An innovator in the experiential hospitality space, BHAKTA’s destinations include historic properties in France, Vermont, and Florida. BHAKTA Spirits is headquartered on its BHAKTA-GRISWOLD Campus in Poultney, VT, the former site of Green Mountain College
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