These gins are crafted on the wild Cornish Coast! 🌊
Because we have been drinking a lot of Gin lately, mass-production and the consequent standardisation of flavours has become the norm to satisfy our thirst for this juniper based spirit. Tarquin brought back the beauty of craftsmanship and we are VERY grateful for it! This gin is produced in tiny batches on the coast of north Cornwall and every batch has a slightly different flavour. Unbottling Tarquin’s gin is pretty much like opening a Kinder egg, you never know what surprise you are going to get but it never disappoints 😉
The Story
As it is often the case with any great invention, Tarquin created this gin to fulfil the personal need of drinking a spirit of superior quality which stands out thanks to human touch.
After studying cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu and training as a fine dining chef in Paris, Tarquin found himself behind a desk in the city, doing recruitment. But looking through CVs all day was not what Tarquin’s cup of tea. It is when he spent his time behind the bar of Thai restaurant in London that he saw an opportunity in the drinks industry: variety was missing and, at the age of 24, he was ready to start distilling. After buying a 1ltr pot still, creating distillates of over 60 different botanicals, thousands of hours of research, blind tastings, he came up with the recipe for his delicious gin. His talent as a fine dining chef helped him to carefully balance 12 botanicals and the secret ingredient is… you’ll never guess, keep reading!
Distillation
The way Tarquin’s gin is produced is not only traditional, it is proper old-school. At the heart of the process there’s Tamara, a Portuguese alembic pot still which only produces 220 bottles every run. Tamara is heated using an open flame and sealed with bread dough (really!), a technique that only very few distilleries use nowadays and allows the distillate to reach an incredible level of complexity.
Southwestern Distillery uses a one-shot distillation in which the right blend of botanicals is used in every run to make an entirely finished spirit. Ingenious and uncompromising. Tarquin’s gin is distilled with local Cornish water, possibly the freshest water in England!
The hand-sorted botanicals are steeped in wheat spirit overnight before warming to distilling temperature in the morning. Only the heart of the run is collected for bottling and once that is rested for several days, bottles are all individually filled, corked, sealed, labelled, numbered and waxed by hand.
The result of our process is a perfect spirit, and each tiny batch has its own completely unique character. Tarquin handwrites his own tasting notes on every single bottle – this is the very distinctive human touch that we are talking about!
The Gins
Tarquin’s Cornish Dry
This is the classic one in the Tarquin’s range, very rounded and balanced for a 42% spirit. The Devon violets and use of the fresh peels is what makes this classic London dry contemporary and extra aromatic. Southwestern Distillery describes the taste as ‘comparable to stumbling upon a beautiful orange blossom in the middle of a crisp, dry pine forest’ – if this does not make you want to try it, I don’t know what would!
Tarquin’s Navy Strength ‘Seadog’ Gin
This one was not meant to stick around in the market but it became so popular that Tarquin made it part of its permanent line. Originally commissioned by the Royal Navy, only 771 bottles were produced at 57% vol. – for heavyweights. The botanicals used are the same but in larger quantities and the alcohol is cut with less water to achieve the navy strength. The result is a bold gin with lots of black pepper on the nose, the warm earthy spices are balanced with plenty of freshness from the fresh citrus zests and floral notes from the violet flowers.
Tarquin’s Rhubarb & Raspberry Gin
Tart rhubarb and the juiciest raspberries are combined with Tarquin’s Cornish Dry to create this lovely sweet dry gin.
It’s delicious with ginger ale!
To find out what other amazing gins are in the range, check out Tarquin’s website here!
Want to give Tarquin’s Gin try? We have 2 in December’s box!
Why not join the ILoveGin club where we send you a new box like the ones below for just £14/m inc free delivery, you’ll get 2 new gins and 2 tonic/mixers each month to try, enough to make 4 G&Ts plus discounts on full size bottles.
Limited Time Offer: Get your first box for just £9 including delivery, that’s £9 for 4 x G&Ts, use code: GINBLOG5OFF at checkout at ILoveGin.com/join
