Scotland's first cider brandy poised for launch
Thistly Cross Cider teamed up with Strathearn Distillery to produce the spirit, which will be released in small single-cask batches of 200 bottles and officially launched on 21 June – the summer solstice.
Peter Stuart, head cider maker at Thistly Cross in Dunbar, said: “Cider brandy tends to be produced in parts of the world with strong cider-making heritage, such as the Calvados region in Normandy.
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Hide Ad“Traditionally, Scotland hasn’t been thought of as a big producer of cider, but we’ve changed that perception in recent years. This, along with Scotland’s world-renowned spirits industry, spurred us on to try something new. We are both proud to be contributing to Scotland’s distilling heritage.”
Tony Reeman-Clark, founder of Methven-based Strathearn Distillery, added: “Distilling cider was something I’d always been interested in, so I applied for a cider licence when I built the whisky distillery, just in case.
“The plan started to come together when I passed Thistly Cross on a train. I hadn’t realised that there was a cider maker in Scotland so, from that point, everything clicked into place. A few months later, Peter and I bumped into each other at an event in London and that’s when our cider brandy journey began.”