Charles Oates was a contradiction, a convict turned respected business man and upstanding member of the community. Perhaps most of all he is best remembered for his pioneering nature and it is in ode to this we have made a Tasmanian version of the amazing French beverage of Calvados.
Distilling Willie Smith’s cider with our Tasmanian built Charentais alembic still that is still used today to produce Calvados in Normandy. The still was first developed in the early 16th Century in the Cognac region of France.
Carefully distilled in small batches, our Apple Brandy captures the pure apple flavours and aromas of pristine fruit grown in the misty valleys of Tasmania.
So who is Charles Oates?
Like most great Tasmanian stories, this self made individual arrived from England as a convict in 1844. He didn’t resign himself to his fate and swung his fortunes around to become a pioneers of the Valley.
Visit our distillery today and you’ll be standing amongst a little piece of the land empire that Oates built for himself and his family.
