Chartreuse is the only liqueur famous enough to have a color named after it. It gets its name from the Chartreuse Mountains and a Carthusian monastery of the same name that has made the liquor since 1764. Much has been written about the complex history of chartreuse, the monks who make it, and the secrecy …
In our Atomos project we are quickly finding that each type of apple we distill brings a unique experience. However many characteristics remain the same between apple distillates In general young apple spirits are sharp, spicy and assertive. In comparison European pear distillates come off the still much softer with a round smooth aroma and …
If there’s a topic that we haven’t covered yet, please send us those suggestions – they may become our next writing post! A Brief History of Persimmon Brandy All fruit will ferment. Expose the sugars of fruit to the air and naturally occurring yeasts will start to eat those sugars to produce alcohol. Our ancestors …
Today’s deep dive starts an exploration of aromas and flavors that you might encounter as you explore craft spirits. We’ll start the discussion with two common faults that can be found in all spirits but are most likely to occur in fruit brandy and can be surprising to producers of other spirits like whiskey. Evaluating …
Apples do not grow true. If you plant a Gravenstein apple seed (called a pip) the tree that results will not produce Gravenstein apples. It may share some similar traits with the parent apples but it will be its own unique type of apple. Most of the time this seedling apple will not be good …
In today’s newsletter deep dive we take a moment to reflect on local history and those who paved the way for us to do what we do. This is a rich topic with many rabbit holes to explore and we will certainly revisit it in the future, but today we start with an overview. A …
In our last newsletter we started an exploration of Calvados with a walk through the orchards and a look at the apples and fermentation of the cider that will become Calvados. Today we continue the study of the terroir of Calvados – moving from the cider to the distillation and maturation of the spirit. We …
Today we have part one of a two part reflection on the Terroir of Calvados – the place, the producers, and the many details that make the apple spirits produced in a small region of Normandy unique. At Ambix Spirits we are seeking the terroir of Sonoma County. However, to understand our own terroir, we …
Today we explore the basics of distillation and the physics of how we turn 7% alcohol by volume (abv) Apple cider into 70% abv, which is the strength at which we collect our brandy. As an example, we will use our Newtown Pippin cider which fermented to 7.4% abv. The other 92.6% of the cider …
As you know we like to nerd out with deep dives into the minutia of our craft. Today that deep dive is an exploration of history and the most common questions that we are asked at the tasting room. “Why Ambix?” The shortest but least satisfying answer is that an ambix is an ancient Greek …