Review: Lilith Apple Brandy

For its next trick, the House of Tamworth, known for its evocative gins and crazily flavored whiskeys, is turning to the apple for inspiration. Lilith Apple Brandy is “named for and inspired by Lilith, the fabled figure known as the first woman ever created and the first wife of Adam – an equal to man, refusing to be treated less than, and whose resounding strength and influence has spanned several millennia.”

Lilith is an extension to the distillery’s Tamworth Garden VSOP Apple Brandy, which we haven’t seen previously. It starts with a base of fermented apple juice, twice distilled in alembic stills in the style of Calvados, which ages in barrels that originally held the distillery’s Winter Wheat Whiskey for five and a half years. The apple brandy base is made from heirloom Cortland apples grown in Concord, NH at Carter Hill Apple Orchards, one of the oldest active orchards in the United States. The finished product is actually a bonded brandy, as the distillate is all from one season, is more than four years old, and is bottled at 50% abv with no additives.

If you like apples, you’ll love what Tamworth has done with this brandy, which threads the needle between sweetness and boozy power just about perfectly. The nose plays it cool: Perfume, red apple skins, and plenty of underlying ethanol. Time in glass helps bring forward more of an apple pulp quality, which fills the bowl of the glass with pretty fruit tones, complementing light floral notes.

The palate is where things get fun. While fruity apples are just part of the ensemble on the nose, here they are the main character, as well they should be. Juicy, saucy red apple — quite sweet — immediately lance the tongue, again backed by a healthy but never overwhelming floral character. Light notes of brown sugar and caramel sauce provide the underlying sweetness, backed by just a touch of vanilla frosting and coconut cream. The finish is layered with milk chocolate and more immersive fruit notes — some strawberry, some cherry — with a river of vanilla running through it. While it lacks the austerity and depth of a well-aged Calvados, it’s got so much flavor, freshness, and exuberance that it’s very hard to put down. I drank more than I care to admit — and ultimately I like it more than most French apple brandies I’ve tasted over the years. Almost all of them. Get some.

100 proof.

A / $95 / tamworthdistilling.com

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