Tonow Vesterhavsmost Danish Filippa Eau de Vie 50 cl 42%

A schoolteacher's daughter on southern Funen pushed a few apple pips into a flowerpot while she was still a child. The tree that came of it still carries her name. A century and a half later that same variety is steaming through a still in West Jutland.

The expert's description

Tonow Vesterhavsmost Danish Filippa Eau de Vie 50 cl 42% is a Danish Eau de Vie distilled from the Danish apple variety Filippa, with no cask maturation, and bottled at 42%.

Filippa comes from Hundstrup on southern Funen. As a child, Filippa Johansen sowed pips in a flowerpot, later moved the one seedling that amounted to anything into the family garden, and in 1887 and 1888 the fruit was presented to the Danish Horticultural Society's fruit committee. The pips are thought to have come from a Gravenstein.

The flesh is white and fine-grained, the juice plentiful, and the flavour sweet-tart with an aroma often compared to Gravenstein, only with more acidity behind it. Filippa is picked in late September and does not peak until November and the couple of months that follow. In the kitchen it is a fixture in apple cake, apple compote and apple with pork, precisely because the acidity holds its ground against sugar.

At TONOW Distillery, Filippa is fermented and distilled on its own, with no other varieties in the still. That is the whole premise of the house: single varieties, where the character of one apple gets room to speak. The acidity is what makes Filippa suited to distillation. Where a sweet eating apple turns round and slightly dull in the glass, Filippa gives a tighter, greener profile that keeps the spirit alert.

Tasting notes

Nose

Tart, fresh apple breaks through first, with a clear lift of alcohol just behind it. Then it opens towards something floral and fruit-sweet, and furthest in sits a darker note of prune. Green apple runs through the whole thing.

Palate

Tight and fresh, more acidity than sweetness. The apple is obvious and almost raw, the way biting into a Filippa straight off the tree feels, and the alcohol carries the flavour forward instead of settling over it.

Finish

Green apple stands longest. The acidity releases slowly, the mouth is left clean, and no sticky sweetness remains.

Specifications

Name: Tonow Vesterhavsmost Danish Filippa Eau de Vie 50 cl 42%
Distillery: TONOW Distillery
Producer: Vesterhavsmost
Region/Country: West Jutland, Denmark
Type: Danish Eau de Vie from the Filippa apple
ABV: 42%
Size: 50 CL
EAN no.: 5714962000736
Serving suggestion: Lightly chilled in a tulip-shaped glass after the meal

Flavour profile

Tart · Green Apple · Fresh · Floral · Dry

Did you know?

Filippa is part of the Frilandsmuseet open-air museum's collection of old Danish fruit varieties, where cultivars long pushed out of commercial growing are kept alive. The variety is therefore both a museum piece and the raw material in this bottle.

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Frequently asked questions about Tonow Vesterhavsmost Danish Filippa Eau de Vie 50 cl 42%

How does Filippa taste compared with a modern eating apple?

More acidity and more perfume. A modern supermarket apple is bred towards sweetness and firmness, while Filippa has white, juicy flesh and a marked acidity carrying a floral aroma. Fruit like that softens quickly and will not survive long transport, which is why it rarely turns up in a chilled display.

What makes this bottle worth seeking out?

The variety. Filippa is an old Danish apple that almost nobody grows at volume, and having it distilled as a single variety is unusual. The apples come from the distillery's own orchard, and the entire run from picking to bottling happens on the same farm.

Can Filippa Eau de Vie be used in cooking?

Yes, and the acidity is what makes it work. A splash in a hollandaise lends the sauce a fresh apple lift without turning it sweet, and it deglazes a pan beautifully after pork or game. For desserts, pour a little over baked apples just before they go to the table.

Why does TONOW Distillery distil only one apple variety at a time?

Because varieties otherwise cancel each other out. Blend enough apples and you land on a generic apple flavour, whereas a single-variety distillation shows what one particular fruit can do. The thinking mirrors Single Cask in whisky: fewer variables, a clearer imprint.

Should it be drunk before or after a meal?

Both work, but it is sharpest afterwards. The acidity and green apple act as a reset after rich food, and at 42% it has the weight to close a meal. As an aperitif it needs to be properly cold so the alcohol steps back.

Which glass suits an Eau de Vie best?

A small tulip-shaped glass with an inward-curving rim. The shape gathers the volatile apple aromatics at the top where your nose can reach them, and it keeps the alcohol vapour from hitting you straight in the face. A wide brandy balloon, of the kind used for the barrel-aged grape distillates from the Cognac Houses and Distilleries, gives far too much air to a spirit this delicate.