A few moments later, Ginette Cenier, the smiling, middle-aged owner, entered the room and, without a lot of chitchat, began pouring samples of the ciders, both dry and off-dry, as well as a pear cider (or perry) called poiré — all funky and delicious. She then moved onto the pommeau, a mix of unfermented apple juice and young Calvados that clocks in at around 17 percent alcohol by volume. Then came the main event in the form of two Calvados: the four-year-old Vieux and the seven-year-old Hors d'Âge. While it was perhaps not as flashy as the experimental bottlings of the Esprit Calvados producers, this was honest, delicious Calvados.

“Do you export this?” I asked, as I basked in the long finish of the Hors d'Âge.

Ms. Cenier chuckled. “Only very little, and only within Europe,” she said. “Not for Americans.”

As I traversed the Route du Cidre, I visited a half-dozen quality farmer-producers — and pretty much every tasting room offered the same three styles of cider (dry, off-dry, pear), pommeau and two or three Calvados. Besides Cenier, my personal favorite was Manoir de Grandouet at the farm of the Grandval family, but if you follow the Cru de Cambremer signs, you won’t go wrong. In the adorable town of Beuvron-en-Auge I stopped at the Relais de la Route du Cidre, where I tasted and bought some bottles from producers I couldn’t visit. (Good Calvados isn’t cheap. A decent bottle with a little bit of age can start at $30, while older bottlings can cost $200 or more.)

Image On the property of Calvados Christian Drouin. Credit... Emli Bendixen for The New York Times

While the Esprit Calvados distillers are more market-savvy than the old-fashioned farmer-producers, they are still small and cozy compared with most multinational spirits brands. When you visit, there is still a strong possibility that you’ll meet the distiller or a member of the family. They also still rely heavily on in-person visits; at Calvados Christian Drouin, sales at the tasting room make up almost 20 percent of the year’s total sales.

But the key difference, as Mr. Drouin suggested when I tasted the 1963, is the level of ambition that the Esprit Calvados producers bring to the table. Mr. Drouin has been experimenting with new ways of aging Calvados in used oak casks seasoned with sherry, port or sweet wine. “This is not a museum, and it’s not a factory, either,” he said. “This is a working family distillery.”

At Domaine Dupont, Jérôme Dupont, 44, poured me innovative ciders that were produced with a second fermentation in the bottle (similar to Champagne) and one that was produced like Belgian Tripel ale. He’s also doing whiskeylike experiments with cask-strength 30-year-old Calvados.