The Christian Drouin estate was created by Christian Drouin Senior in 1960 on the hills of Gonneville. For the first 20 years, he was assisted by Pierre Pivet, a distiller who produced cider on the estate. Christian Drouin also bought old calvados casks from other producers in the region. The business became more powerful when Christian Drouin Junior took over in 1969, followed by his own son Guillaume in 2004. In 1991-1992, production was moved to a farm in Coudray-Rabut. The estate grows some 30 varieties of apple in its two orchards. One of the house's specialities is Calvados ageing in original casks, such as sherry, Rivesaltes, Banyuls, port and rum barrels. It also has a huge number of old vintage casks in its cellars.

Several thousand of these carafes are hung in trees by the Alleaume family of apple-growers near Gonneville-sur-Honfleur ever year. Four to five months later, the carafes containing ripe apples are removed and cleaned, before being filled with Christian Drouin Calvados. The apple imprisoned in the carafe adds to the Calvados’’ fruity flavour. On average, only 40% of the carafes are released for sale.