Tarquin's Gin

He started with a completely blank canvas. He’s never distilled anything before in his life and so his first task is to begin self-teaching. He starts to collate and consume as much knowledge about distilling as he can lay his hands on. He becomes fixated with experimentation - making individual distillates of any and every botanical he can find. From the traditional to the bizarre. From the foraged to the foreign. Over time he builds an extensive library of flavours, each offering a different profile to the last. Many work. Many don’t. It’s all part of the process - trial and error.

Then comes the time to build, to blend, to balance and to sample. Over 100 different trial gin batches are developed. He plays around with combinations and proportions, tweaking ideas and tastes as he goes. They’re all rated, ranked and refined. A lot of gin is drunk. A lot of smiles had. Some grimaces. Some headaches. But then he hits upon the winner. From his bounty of botanicals, 12 are finally selected – a concoction of roots, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits and flowers sourced from the far corners of the world as well as from his back garden. The precise recipe is finalized and safely documented. It’s then put under lock and key and told to no one else. Tarquin’s gin is ready – now to time to start sharing it with the world.