Fit for angels

By George Thomas

Once upon a time, in the depths of rural Herefordshire, there were lots of pot stills bubbling away making cider brandy, and the villagers would get very merry drinking it. But then along came the nasty taxman and slapped a hefty tax on the cider brandy to help the King pay for the wars against the French.

Unable to pay, the peasants revolted, burning effigies of the tax collector. One MP in Parliament, arguing against a new law allowing Customs and Excise the right to enter any home to seize illicit stills, declared: "An Englishman's home is his castle."

But to no avail and, sadly, the good folk of Herefordshire were forced to give up making their favourite tipple.

Like all good stories, the tale of the vanishing cider brandy has a happy ending for, some 200 years later, along came a knight in shining armour to fight the mean taxman and revive the craft of distilling the county's plentiful supply of cider into brandy. The French, the cause of its demise in the first place, have never stopped making it and call theirs Calvados.

So it was, in 1984, that Bertram Bulmer, having retired as chairman of the family cider business, launched one of his life's ambitions to once again produce Hereford cider brandy. Mind you, the taxman, probably remembering those burning effigies of two centuries earlier, did not give up easily.

It took Bertram two and a half years to get a distiller's licence - and then, with the first barrels maturing in his recently opened Cider Museum, a letter arrived from the EC mandarins in Brussels ordering him to stop calling it cider brandy as the rules stated only the product of the grape could be called brandy.

Bertram uttered the immortal words: "Bugger Brussels!" Even today the taxman gets £9 of the cost of every bottle.

Bertram gave his first bottle of Hereford made cider brandy to the Queen in 1987, when she visited Bulmers for the company centenary. A fair swop as she had, three years earlier, given him one of her Windsor Park oak trees to make the barrels in which the brandy would mature.

Cider brandy entails a double distillation process - 230 litres of cider is boiled in a pot still with all but 60 litres of spirit left after evaporation or, as it's called, the angels' share. The process is repeated four times until the pot still can be refilled for the second distillation at which point the cider brandy will be around 74% proof, reduced to 40% for sale. Fiery stuff!

Nowadays, it has been found that old whisky barrels, with new heads of charred Hereford oak, are best for maturing, stored in a 60ft deep cellar for a minimum of five years and up to 15 years, mellowing slowly and taking on the deep, rich colour of the oak.

It's a long time to wait for a return on capital, hence the price of £26.25 for a bottle of 10- year-old or £23.65 for a five-year-old, available from the Cider Museum. But well worth the wait and the money when you savour the unique taste that started out in the rich, red soil of a Herefordshire cider orchard.

Bertram's son, Nick, has been the distiller from day one, with volunteers, like retired cider maker, Tony Olive, lending a hand. To Nick it's a labour of love and a fine memorial to his father's life's work, especially when it is compared favourably with the French Calvados.

To Herefordshire folk originally cheated by the taxman, it's their birthright restored.

Nick Bulmer "noses" a glass of his Hereford Cider Brandy.

An 18th century newspaper engraving depicting the "roasting" of the exciseman during riots resulting from a tax on cider brandy in 1793.

Just about every farm of any consequence in Herefordshire would have its own stone cider mill. Many would also have had a pot still to convert some of the cider into brandy. Today the only working still is in Hereford Cider Museum. Picture: Courtesy of Hereford Cider Museum.

Some of the barrels of cider brandy ready for blending.

Bottle samples from different barrels of cider brandy.

A bust of Bertram Bulmer by Angela Conner Bulmer.