Our beautiful Adolf Adrian pot still is hand made in Germany, all hammered copper inside and out, and it is a joy to keep polished. We put 50 gallons of our Westcott Bay Cider into the still and heat it up very slowly to get the best quality apple eau de vie (fresh fruit distillate) we can. A typical 4 to 6 hour run produces about a couple of  gallons of 78% ethanol (hearts). Most of this goes into old 59 gallon French Limousin oak barrels for aging.

Our dream is to make apple brandy and exceptional gins with Washington apples, many of which we grow and harvest in our orchard at Westcott Bay Cider.

The climate in the San Juan Islands is very similar to the climate in Normandy, where fine ciders, pommeaus (a barrel-aged mix of cider and Apple Eau de Vie)and Calvados are made. We are using techniques that those French farmers use for our production – distilling cider into eau de vie with a beautiful copper still and aging it in old French Limousin oak barrels, reconditioned with pommeau  from our ciderworks.