About Somerset Cider Brandy ....
Just up the road from The Cheese and Wine Shop, well it`s about 20 miles or so in truth, is Martock, home of Somerset Cider Brandy. There you will find a great Apple orchard, with varietys such as Harry Masters Jersey or Brown Snout, and which grow on trees up to 60 years old.
These apples are pressed to make juice, fermented to make cider and then distilled in two gleaming Calvados-style stills, affectionately known as Josephine and Fifi.
This is a unique drink with close similarities to its famous French cousin, but bourne of English apples, ingenuity and passion.
Somerset Cider Brandy Royal 3 Year 35cl
A little history ...
Somerset Cider Brandy is an apple brandy first produced by Burrow Hill in 1987. It is claimed as the first legal distilling in Somerset for 150 years when 1989 the farm received the first full cider-distilling licence ever issued by the UK's HM Customs and Excise.
Burrow Hill Cider Farm is a cider farm in Somerset, England at the base of Burrow Hill overlooking the Somerset Levels.
It has views of most of South Somerset on clear days. The cider is made in traditional vats and uses age old traditional methods of production. Every October is "Apple Day" when the apples are harvested from locally owned orchards.
Somerset Set Eau Di Vie
In 2003 the company won the NFU Great British Food Award.
At Burrow Hill apples have been grown and cider has been pressed for at least 150 years. It is the soil climate and the apple varieties which give the cider and cider brandy their unique quality. It has long been recognised that for growing apples for fermenting England has three 'vintage' areas: all are in Somerset; and at Burrow Hill, Kingsbury Episcopi, its right in the middle of one, the others being around Wedmore and Baltonsborough.
Apples are the starting point for both the cider and Cider Brandy, and at Burrow Hill they believe it is vital to know their origins. All the apples that are fermented come from Somerset, and most come from their own orchards which extend to some 150 acres. They grow more than 40 varieties of vintage cider apples and the cider for drinking or distilling is made by blending these apples. The blending of the different types of fruit is the key to the craft of cider making. At Burrow Hill this is the responsibility of Tim Stoddart and Julian Temperley, who together have more than 50 years of experience of making cider.
Buy Somerset Cider Brandy here at The Cheese and Wine Shop. Dont forget their superb Apple Juices, along with their award winning Ciders, all available here at The Cheese and Wine Shop for next delivery!
Somerset Cider Brandys 20 Year release
