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Somerset Cider Brandy wins EU Protection

Somerset Cider Brandy has joined the elite list of European food and drink products after being accorded Protected Geographical Indication status.

The man who revived the traditional English craft of distilling cider, company owner Julian Temperley, says he is thrilled. “It’s not merely the end of a very long and complicated saga, it means the West Country potentially has a new and profitable rural industry,” he said.

Somerset Cider Brandy has now been added to a small, select list of English products which are protected under a system modelled on the French appellation contrôlée system that governs wine names, and as a spirit now ranks alongside Scotch Whisky and Plymouth Gin

But for a time, there were fears the 20 years Mr Temperley has spent perfecting the product would end in commercial disaster, because when EU wine and spirit regulations were redrafted cider brandy was omitted from the approved product list – because officials in Brussels had never heard of it.

And when he tried to get it reinstated Mr Temperley ran into opposition.

“There was a great deal of whingeing from the Spanish and Italians, who tried to argue that ‘brandy’ is a term which can only be applied to something produced from grapes,” he said.

“Had we given in we would have faced a huge task to rebrand and relabel every single bottle and package and change all our advertising material, and without a name effectively we would have had to cease production, so naturally we resisted. Happily, getting PGI status has put everything straight. And we are absolutely thrilled to bits.”

Mr Temperley’s Somerset Cider Brandy Company owns more than 160 acres of cider apple orchards producing traditional varieties such as Kingston Black and Dabinett, which both originated in Somerset. The terms of the PGI accreditation means the raw material for the cider brandy must come from at least 20 specified varieties of vintage cider apples, grown without the aid of artificial nitrogen fertiliser and yielding no more than ten tons to the acre – far fewer than modern commercial orchards.

Somerset Cider Brandy Company – there are also two other, smaller producers in the county – already has a worldwide reputation.

Cider Brandy had not been produced legally in England for more than 300 years when Mr Temperley started small-scale production in the late 1980s but his output was soon winning unstinting praise from the drinks industry.

Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, chairman of the Parliamentary cider committee said the committee’s decision was “fantastic news” and testament to Mr Temperley’s dogged determination.

“Julian has won this battle through sheer, dogged determination – but it’s a lesson to everyone of how difficult it is to challenge the Eurocrats and win,” he said.

“Frankly I find it ludicrous that it has taken this long for common sense to prevail in Brussels.”