Post by Owen on Aug 28, 2020 19:35:33 GMT
1 ~~~ In the Right Spirit: A Taste of the UK's Gin Revolution ~ Rough Guides ~~~
www.roughguides.com/special-features/in-the-right-spirit-a-taste-of-the-uks-gin-revolution/
Gin has seen a renaissance across the UK, with sales booming and distilleries opening all across the country. Penny Walker went to sip some for herself.
“Beautiful parts of the world deserve beautiful products to represent them”. Striding across the crunchy gravel path towards the huge converted barn made of beautiful Cotswold stone, our guide Dean is brimming with a contagious passion. “This is the magic of distillation.”
As I step through the vast, wooden doors at the Cotswold Distillery, I’m hit by the pungent yet not unpleasant smell of slowly fermenting barley. It takes me back to hours spent pulling pints behind the bar of the village pub.
It’s evident that this is a working distillery. Timers ping, overall-clad distillers run up and down steel stairs to check on various stills, and the whole place gently hums with the sound of productivity.
“Everything that’s grown locally is sourced locally, from the lavender that’s plucked from just a few miles down the road to the special hand-picked ingredients that go into our seasonal hedgerow gin,” Dean explains.
Here, even the waste from the distilling process is returned to the land. Some is tossed into the local farmer’s anaerobic digester to make bio-fuel while the rest is fed to the region’s cattle.
www.roughguides.com/special-features/in-the-right-spirit-a-taste-of-the-uks-gin-revolution/