One of our product sourcing adventures took us to Somerset where we discovered yet another little known British treasure, Cider Brandy. Our 10 Year Old West Country Cider Spirit 42% is a complex and mature apple brandy with Christmas Pudding richness.
This is a very drinkable a digestif, with the quality of a vintage French Cognac or Calvados, from Somerset.
How is it best drunk?
Its raisiny tang is concentrated, dense and warming. It will provide you with a lasting aroma and memory of the Burrow Hill Farm orchard where its apples are grown. This is a drink that will please both the Single Malt enthusiast and Cognac drinker alike.
A large glass of Somerset 10 Year Old Cider Brandy, drunk after a fine dinner and in front of an open fire, is what dreams are made off and a fantastic alternative to a Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
If you like our Somerset 10 Year Old Cider Brandy then why not try our Somerset Pomona 20%, which is made from a younger Cider Brandy spirit and a little kinder?
How is this made?
Cider Brandy is similar but very different from the more commonly known French Cider Brandy, produced in the Calvados Region of France. Both our Somerset 10 Year Old and our Somerset Pomona 20% are made at Burrow Hill Farm by Julian Temperley, a wonderfully passionate man who has achieved miracles to hold the first full cider distilling license in recorded history.
The process of making Cider Brandy is complex. In the autumn Somerset vintage cider apples are gathered and pressed. The juice is fermented in huge oak vats and then distilled in two stills which have been named by Julian "Fifi" and "Josephine." The clear spirit, known as Eau de Vie, is then trickled into oak barrels where it is left to mature for 10 years.
The combination of barrel, apples, soil and climate at Burrow Hill give Julian's Cider Brandy its distinctive and excellent taste.