Is anything better than Calvados? asks Guy Venables. Yes, and it comes from Somerset

Whenever I hear that someone’s going to France I ask them two questions. The first is “Can you bring me back some Calvados?” The next question is along the lines of “Why the hell not?” The answer I usually get is that they want it all themselves.
Over here Calvados is usually expensive and of lesser quality, the good stuff being hidden by those crafty Frenchies doing what, I begrudgingly admit, I would have done myself. It seems however that I’ve been barking up the wrong arbre, for although I’ve been looking for Calvados in the UK, I’ve simply been getting the name wrong.
The Somerset Cider Brandy Company was started in 1989 by Tim Stoddart and Julian Temperley on the Somerset Levels. After producing very good cider (and they still do), using apples with such wonderfully rustic names as Tremlett’s Bitter, Brown Snout and Dabinett, Julian decided that they could make cider brandy akin to Calvados, over here in the UK.
He went to France, talked to the local producers and came back with two battered and dull gas-fired stills bought from the widow of a Normandy Calvados producer. Nowadays ‘Josephine’ and ‘Fifi’ have been restored to their former glory and can distil 2,000 gallons of cider a day. The apples are picked really ripe in November and December so that they have more tannin giving the brandy more body and flavour.
If France was the place to go to learn about distilling then Scotland was an obvious choice for barrel ageing. Here he learned from the whisky trade about bourbon, sherry and brandy barrels, how to use them and what to expect from their flavours. New Hungarian barrels add spice, Limousin French barrels add oak and lemon.
Since winning a PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) in 2010 Somerset Cider Brandy was reinstated as a legal term. The EU not only amended EU law but also gave them a much deserved ‘appellation contrôlée’, a rare and treasured accolade.
Similar to the way our local fizzes have trumped the French champagne houses, their ten-year-old cider brandy is simply better than Calvados. It feels lighter, creamier, softer but really importantly it is expertly balanced in the hands of veterans. My birthday present list now contains their 15 and 20 year old. Everything else has been scrubbed off.