Good grief, I’ve just been well and truly seduced! Back in April, attentive readers might recall, I led a heavily oversubscribed Spectator visit to Chapel Down winery in Kent for a bit of a tasting and one heck of a lunch. We ate and drank like kings and lingered far longer over lunch than was planned with coffee skipped in favour of a mad sprint for the train.

As I dashed down the stairs two at a time the Chapel Down MD, Mark Harvey, yelled after me that since there wasn’t time now he was going to send me a little something in the post. It arrived the other week and I’ve only just got round to tasting it, a small sample bottle of Lamberhurst Fine & Rare English Grape Brandy.F

Made from Seyval Blanc harvested in 1991 on the Lamberhurst Estate (owned at the time by Sir Kenneth McAlpine, a long-time supplier of grapes to Chapel Down) it was distilled a year later by Julian Temperley since when it’s been maturing quietly in oak.

Once famous for simply being fashion designer Alice Temperley’s father, JT is now rightly celebrated as the producer of the sublime Somerset Cider Brandy, than which – I’ve long argued – there is no finer British digestif, in particular the remarkable rich yet mellow Twenty Year Old. (See www.ciderbrandy.co.uk)

I had an uproarious time with Julian many years ago sampling his entire range of ciders and ciders brandies at the improbably picturesque Pass Vale Farm on the southern edge of the Somerset Levels. I remember calling my wife to assure her that I was on the next train home only for me to miss it as Julian opened yet another bottle. I called her again, missed another train and so another bottle was opened. This process was repeated, I think, four times before Mrs Ray put her foot down and roared “Enough!” down the phone and off, finally, I had to scuttle.

I mention this only to illustrate that Mr Temperley has form in creating irresistible and alluring spirits. He’s a wizard, a veritable alchemist and, blow me, he’s done it again with the Lamberhurst Fine & Rare English Grape Brandy. It’s utterly, completely, overwhelmingly, mouth-fillingly delicious and without doubt the finest ever brandy produced from English grapes.

There’s toffee, honey, stewed and confit fruit on nose and palate with spice and vanilla too. It’s robust, even earthy, but soothingly smooth on the finish and, unlike so many non-French brandies, not too sweet.

But just as Julian Temperley shudders when his cider brandy is compared to calvados pointing out that Somerset has different soil, climate, apples and barrels to Normandy so, for the same reasons, it’s a mistake to compare this English brandy to cognac or armagnac. They differ like Bordeaux differs from Burgundy.

I do urge you to try this seductive home-grown spirit and to relish the smile that spreads across your chops as you stick your beak into the glass and take a first sip.

Only 2,000 bottles have been produced of Lamberhurst Fine & Rare English Grape Brandy, individually numbered and packaged in a swanky gift box, yours for £150 a pop from www.chapeldown.com.

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