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.
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