Naked Lady Perry Spirit

Distilled from our own pressed and fermented perry pears. These curious pears which have eclectic names like Circus pear and Merrylegs, are indigenous to this part of Britain. The perry is carefully distilled in our wood-fired copper pot still. The distilling process requires great skill involving all the senses. The fire has to be controlled with just sufficient heat to get the perry to give up its alcohol along with its unique pear flavours. Too much heat and process will be rushed and the perry will not render its subtler flavours. The quality of the distillate will suffer. If things are going just right then the still makes the sound of a gently idling steam locomotive! The first offerings from the still are the ‘heads’ which contain methanol. We definitely don’t want that and it is put aside for later disposal. Now the distiller has to be extra vigilant because quite suddenly the ‘heads’ will give way to ‘hearts’. This change is detected by smell and taste. The hearts (ethyl alcohol) is what we are after. Eventually the distillate becomes oily (fusel oil). These ‘tails’ are withheld and re-distilled when they give up more alcohol.

The resulting spirit is placed in oak casks for aging. After some months it is bottled in the distillery. We add saffron to give a little twist to this smooth oaky spirit. Meadow Saffron grows wild on the farm and its vernacular name is “Naked Lady”. 40% ABV