The Spirit of Distillation
We distil the same way today as we did over two hundred years ago. The method comprises of two wash stills and two low wines stills.
Our fermented wash is first heated – almost to the point of boiling, but not quite – to drive off alcohol vapours. It is then condensed back into a liquid, known as ‘low wines’, which results in a very coarse distillate, around 20% ABV. It will be further refined in the second distillation in the low wines stills.
Low wines are then brought to the point of boiling and three distinct examples of new spirit are condensed. The first (‘heads’ or foreshots) and final third (‘tails’ or feints) are rejected. The steeply inclined s-shaped lyne arm of our still gives heavy reflux which leads to more refined notes in the spirit.
It is only the middle distillate, or ‘Heart of the Run’, which is deemed pure enough for collection.