Ben Branson, the visionary founder of Seedlip, announces the launch of Sylva, a groundbreaking non-alcoholic distillery and maturation lab in Essex. The research, experimentation and development, led by Ben and Jack Wareing, sees a first-of-its-kind approach to crafting luxury dark spirits (<0.5% ABV), with the first experimental release available to pre-order from mid-September.
Honouring the traditions of dark spirits whilst embracing the creative freedom that comes from operating outside traditional regulations, Sylva has developed a pioneering process to extract the complex character from a diverse selection of wood and cereals, creating small-batch, made-to-order luxury dark spirits, without alcohol.
At the heart of Sylva's innovation is its commitment to exploring the full flavour potential of traditional barrel wood and grain varieties as well as trees never before used in drinks. Utilising cutting-edge methods such as sonic maturation, vacuum distillation and vacuum kiln roasting, the kitchen-style lab is able to experiment with flavour extraction, distillation, and maturation in ways never before seen in drinks. These processes allow Sylva to produce aged spirits for sipping with depth, complexity and character, released in exclusive, limited-edition batches.
The star of Sylva's first release is Padauk, a West African wood known for its reddish-orange bark, aromatic pungency and rich history. Red Oak from the lab's own forest has been selected for its unique porous qualities as well as single malt American oak spent barrel staves from Nc'nean in Scotland.
Complementing this is the hero cereal, Rye [Secale Cereale], whose peppery, nutty, and spicy notes are extracted through methods including malted rye extraction, toasted rye vacuum distillation, and gravity percolation.
"I come from a family of grain growers, woodworkers, inventors and timber merchants, so Sylva is a very special project, both personally and professionally. I am excited to celebrate wood's unique and diverse flavours by championing innovative extraction and maturation techniques so we can break new ground on what dark non-alcoholic spirits can be."
By working on small, made-to-order releases, Sylva is able to create non-alcoholic dark spirits that retain the familiar characteristics of aged spirits - full-bodied flavour, rich mouthfeel and texture – whilst showcasing the incredible range of flavour and complexity wood and grain have to offer and creating the best tasting dark spirits <0.5% abv.
Sylva's first release, PADAUK, is now available for pre-order, with bottles shipped from November exclusively at www.sylvalabs.com. Priced at £40 per 500ml bottle.
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