Cornish Cyder Brandy
£41.95
Waste nothing – when our friends at Polgoon, makers of great cider and wine, told us about a batch of their artisan cider that didn’t quite have the profile they wanted, we jumped at the chance to turn it into something special. A small test distillation showed that the cider made excellent spirit, and we started full production: 2,500 litres of cider, double distilled to produce just 200 litres of spirit. It came off the still at 56% ABV, relatively low strength and packed with flavour, and we reduced it to 50% before ageing in ex-bourbon casks for 7 months. We then transferred the brandy to a stainless-steel tank to allow it to rest while we slowly brought the strength down to 40% – our perfect drinking strength – with Cornish spring water. It has been bottled with no further messing about, a pure expression of Polgoon’s orchards.
Tasting Notes
Nose
Loads of apples, as you might expect: sweet red, sharp green, boiled sweets, sweet sauce, and baked with nutmeg and lashings of brown sugar. Sultana-studded fruit cake pokes out from beneath the apples – fruit-cake country slices with cinnamon and sugar crystals on top. A river of toffee and raisin jam flows underneath.
Palate
Spicy and surprisingly dry, with nutmeg and cinnamon diving into the apples from the nose. The emphasis is now on stewed and baked apple flavours, with flashes of freshly sliced freshness. Sultanas and muscat grape notes sit alongside the piles of apples, surrounded by crunchy barley sugar curls.
Finish
Sour apple and apple peel with lingering soft spice.