10 minute read
Good spirits
CHEW VALLEY DISTILLERY
cvdistillery.co.uk Joe Kelly, founder, owner and distiller at Chew Valley Distillery, tells us more about his venture.
Chew Valley Distillery is a relatively new venture isn’t it? How’s it going?
Launched in February 2020 Chew Valley Distillery was only ever supposed to be a house gin for my father’s restaurant — The Lazy Lobster. Now just over a year later, we have our own distillery and bar in the heart of Chew Valley, which is based between Bristol and Bath. Our spirits are now multi-award winning on an international scale (we won Bronze at the World Gin Awards, and Silver and Bronze at the London Spirit Awards. We were also awarded gold and silver by Taste of the West, and Gin Guide named us winner in the London Dry, Navy Strength categories). The distillery itself was voted the New Distillery of the Year at this year’s international Gin Guide Awards. All gins in our range are distilled by me in traditional copper stills, using only the best botanicals and purest water which is provided by Cheddar spring water.
That’s brilliant! So what’s next?
We have secured a premises to upscale and plan to begin the journey distilling rum and vodka alongside our gin early next year.
Anything else we should know about Chew Valley Distillery?
We also distil gin for other companies. We currently distil for Clevedon Distillery, XV Gins (two players from Bristol Bears Rugby team) and Suave Owl (a men’s formal wear producer based in Bath). We have a few more exciting, but secret, collaborations in the pipeline too!
Good spirits
Meet some of the West Country’s finest spirits producers
DEVON RUM COMPANY
devonrumcompany.com We get the lowdown on the Devon Rum Company from head of marketing, Brad Wicks.
Tell us a bit about the Devon Rum Company…
Established in March 2020, the Devon Rum Company was created to share the joy of handcrafted spiced and flavoured rums with the world. Our range of artisan, small-batch craft spirits include a super smooth Premium Spiced Rum and a golden Honey Spiced Rum. These delectable drinks are blended by hand in the heart of Devon, using locally sourced spring water, rich flower honey, aromatic spices and fresh citrus fruits. With a true appreciation for our coasts and countryside, we also take sustainability seriously — serving up our award-winning drinks in 100 per cent plastic free bottles, while maintaining a carbon negative status.
What do you think makes Devon Rum Company drinks special?
From day one, our Founder, David Seear, has used a unique recipe that puts the exotic rums, spices and fresh local ingredients we use in the spotlight. This is achieved by removing vanilla from our blend; vanilla can sometimes be a little overbearing as a flavour and can mask the great depth that spiced rums have. Instead, we enhance our flavours with rich maple syrup to provide a finished product that’s unlike anything else in the emerging craft rum market.
Do you have a signature product?
Our Premium Spiced Rum was the first product we ever launched. It begins life as a unique blend of exotic pot and column Caribbean rums. We then enhance these flavours by adding soft Devon spring water, aromatic spices and fresh citrus fruits. The result is a super smooth rum that can be enjoyed on the rocks, with a quality mixer, or in mouthwatering cocktails.
Have you been working on anything new recently?
We recently expanded our range with our new Honey Spiced Rum. This new flavour offers a slightly sweeter pour in comparison to our Premium Spiced Rum. It’s blended with locally sourced flower honey from our friends at Quince Honey Farm in North Devon. To emphasise the rich sweetness of this golden nectar, we soften the blend with a little extra spring water, to create a slightly lighter drink that’s perfect for the summer. We’re always experimenting with new flavours too, and we’re in the early stages of developing a third blend. All I can say right now is that it’s sure to bring the heat!
Have you won any awards recently?
Yes! We’re very proud to say that we were recently awarded with two Taste of the West Gold Awards in the competitive wines, spirits and liqueurs category. Our Premium and Honey Spiced Rums received one award each, making us the only rum brand to win multiple gold awards.
SALCOMBE DISTILLING CO
www.salcombegin.co.uk Salcombe Distilling Co’s UK Marketing Manager, Stephanie Garnett, tells us more about the Devon-based brand.
Can you give us a bit of background to the Salcombe Distilling Co?
Inspired by the coastal vitality of Salcombe and its shipbuilding heritage, Salcombe Distilling Co's collection of exceptional spirits are distilled and crafted at their waterside distillery on Island Street, Salcombe; one of the world’s only distilleries directly accessible by boat. Drawing influence from the famous 19th century Salcombe Fruit Schooners and their precious cargo, SDCo use only the finest fresh citrus fruits and spices to create their range of multi-award winning Salcombe Gins, each led by flavour and inspired by history.
Do you have a signature product?
Salcombe Gin 'Start Point' is our multi award-winning flagship gin, launched in 2016. Distilled to the exacting one-shot London Dry method, this classic citrus led gin is elegantly smooth, distinct and complex yet extremely versatile. ‘Start Point’ is created using the finest Macedonian juniper berries selected for their high limonene content and the fresh citrus peels of red grapefruit, lemon and lime which are hand peeled each day prior to distillation. A further nine botanicals including English coriander seed, cardamom, cubeb berries, liquorice and angelica root are used to create this exceptionally smooth London Dry Gin. The iconic ‘Start Point’ lighthouse marked the beginning of the 19th century voyages of the Salcombe Fruit Schooners which carried the exotic goods, fruits and spices that inspire this gin’s signature flavour.
What sets your drinks apart?
Each of the botanicals we use has a story to tell, none are mass produced, all are traceable to their source and all are picked at their best. Of utmost importance and often overlooked in distillation is the quality of the water used for blending. Water plays an important part in creating SDCo’s phenomenally smooth collection, we use pure naturally soft Dartmoor water; some of the softest and purest water in England, sourced from high up in the wilds of Dartmoor National Park.
What have you been working on lately?
Over the past 12 months, we have launched the following products: Salcombe Gin Voyager Series ‘Phantom’; Salcombe Gin Voyager Series ‘Daring’; our non-alcoholic spirit ‘New London Light’; Seamist Liquid Garnish and Salcombe Rum ‘Lantern Rock’. We’ve also been exploring some unusual processes and innovative flavour combinations to build on our collection of non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs which we hope to launch later this year. We’re also working on our next Voyager Series gin — a collection of limitededition gins developed in collaboration with world renowned chefs and iconic wine makers.
Sustainability is an important part of the Salcombe Distilling Co ethos isn’t it? Can you talk a bit more about that?
A big focus for us is sustainability and the protection of the oceans is very important to us. With this at the forefront of our thought process, we have been working on meaningful initiatives to ensure that we minimise our impact on the environment whilst making the most positive contribution we possibly can to improve the health and wellbeing of our oceans. We recently launched our ‘One percent for the Ocean’ campaign where for every 70cl bottle of Salcombe Gin ‘Start Point’, Salcombe Gin ‘Rosé Sainte Marie’ and our non-alcoholic spirit ‘New London Light’ sold in the UK, we donate 1 per cent of the retail price to the Marine Conservation Society’s seagrass regeneration project. In parallel to this, we’re also working on other initiatives to reduce our impact on the environment, with carbon neutral shipping on all UK web orders, prohibiting the use of plastic and evolving our packaging, as well as using electric energy from renewable sources across our business. Following the recent opening of our Dartmouth retail store, our popular gin refill scheme is now available at multiple sites in the South West and that’s just the beginning! Our commitment to our oceans is unconditional and our approach to do our very best for oceans is work in progress and will remain so.
TWO DRIFTERS DISTILLERY
www.twodriftersrum.com Gemma Wakeham, director of the Exeterbased Two Drifters Distillery, fills us in…
Tell us a bit about what makes Two Drifters Distillery different…
Two Drifters Distillery is just over two years old, and unlike most British rum distilleries, who buy in Caribbean rum and carefully blend it, we make rum from scratch. We start with 100 per cent molasses and ferment, distil, flavour and bottle in our aircraft hangar style warehouse near Exeter Airport. We also built the business with sustainability at the core, we are the world’s first rum distillery to have a carbon negative footprint, meaning we remove more CO2 than we create — from sugarcane plantation in Central America all the way through to our customers doorstep.
What’s proving popular with your customers at the moment?
Our Overproof Spiced Pineapple Rum 60% abv has been a huge hit over the last 12 months, it’s a premium rum with added fun! With flavours of salted caramel, tropical pineapple and crème brulee, it makes the perfect rum and coke.
What are you working on at the moment?
We have a cask-aged rum being released in early 2022. We have also been working on our rebrand since December 2020, and have just launched our beautiful new bottles and low-carbon website as well as an organic merchandise range, with products created using 100 per cent renewable energy.
You’ve been busy then! Any other news you’d like to share?
Our Pure White Rum won silver in the International Wine and Spirit Competition.
DEVON COVE
www.devoncove.co.uk Devon Cove's Director and Founder, Leanne Carr, gives us the lowdown.
Do you have a signature product?
Our Cove Damson Liqueur is an absolute favourite with our customers. It’s made from our Gold award-winning Cove Vodka, so is exceptionally smooth and it has an incredible fruity burst from the damsons. People often comment that it is too good and the bottle never lasts long enough. We recommend serving simply over ice, or it is absolutely delicious in a glass of bubbly. We call it a Cove Royale, Devon’s take on a Kir Royale.
What sets Devon Cove apart from the rest?
Our Cove Vodka is exceptionally smooth and made from King Edward potatoes which are lovingly grown in rich soil and the Atlantic sea air on my family farm overlooking Hope Cove, Devon. Our vodka and liqueurs are distinctly smooth and delicious and capture the essence of our county. Who doesn’t love the sea and fresh home-grown food? We were recently awarded ‘Gold’ at the Taste of the West Awards for our luxuriously smooth Cove Vodka and our divinely fruity Cove Damson Liqueur.
Do you have any new products?
We are very excited to have launched Cove Rum in August. It’s a handcrafted British Rum with hints of orange blossom, smooth caramel, creamy light spice and a lick of tobacco and rich vanilla to finish. Our oakaged golden rum is made in small batches from molasses, oak from our family farm overlooking Hope Cove, Quince’s Devon Honey, Salcombe Dairy Cocoa Nibs and Devonia Spring Water. Absolutely scrumptious and best sipped over ice. We also love a cocktail by the sea.
That sounds delicious! Have you got anything else in the pipeline?
Following the launch of our Rum, we will be launching a range of rum-based Cove Cocktail Kits to add to our current range of vodkabased cocktail kits. These are available to buy on our website and are incredibly popular for birthday gifts, anniversaries, date nights and just to spread a bit of cheer. Our Rum will feature in our Christmas Eve boxes for grownups and we also have more new products in development ready to launch next year...
COVE ICED CARAMEL COFFEE RECIPE
SERVES 1
35ml Cove Vodka 15ml Monin Caramel Syrup 60ml of espresso 200ml milk
1 Make the espresso by putting the coffee bag in 200ml of boiling water for 3 minutes. 2 Pour 35ml Cove Vodka and 15ml Monin Caramel Syrup into a tall glass over ice and stir. 3 Top up with milk. 4 Pour in 60ml of espresso and garnish with coffee beans. Enjoy!
Recipe by Devon Cove (www.devoncove.co.uk)