{"id":1245,"date":"2020-02-07T15:06:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T14:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:06:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T14:06:47","slug":"we-slowly-sliced-a-lemon-and-polished-some-glasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parkvintners.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1245","title":{"rendered":"We slowly sliced a lemon and polished some glasses\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fellow Wine\nLovers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank God it\u2019s\nFriday, we\u2019ve worked really hard this week! \nOk, it may not actually look like that to you, having been closed Monday\nand Tuesday but trust me; we were putting our livers on the line for the\ngreater good!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, as mentioned,\nwe were closed Monday and Tuesday to travel to the very north of the country to\nvisit the fine folk on the moors at Hepple. \nWe have sold the high fidelity gin from Hepple pretty much since they\nstarted to share it with the world, I think Fortnum\u2019s were the only people to\npip us to the post and frankly we don\u2019t mind coming second to Piccadilly\u2019s\nfinest\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, having\nsold their Gin for such a long time (October 2015 to be precise) we finally\nmanaged to save up enough groats for the return trip to Alnmouth in order to go\nvisit these distilling deities and Monday was the day.  Emerging into the blistering sunshine we were\nmet at the station by Walter, the major-domo of the Moorland Spirit company,\nwho whisked us the 45 minutes inland to the Northumberland National Park and\nthe home of Hepple, assuring us on the way that we should not get used to\nhaving to wear sunglasses and in fact Wayne was sensible to have bought\nwaterproof trousers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was sound\nadvice from a local we soon discovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking on the\nmoors having had a restorative martini, we saw sunshine, we saw horizontal\nrain, we saw heather, then some more heather and just round the corner from\nthat, some heather.  We also saw, more\nimportantly some of the Hepple botanicals in their element.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Douglas Fir, Bog\nMyrtle and Juniper all grow on the moor here and as a result are at the front\nof the Hepple story, as is blackcurrant but these bushes were having a sleep.  To be honest, raw Bog Myrtle of the branch is\nan acquired taste, Douglas Fir has a strong citrus element that surprises us\nstill and the Juniper cones are just delicious and spicy.  The fact that Hepple has its own Juniper\nmakes it unique amongst British Gin producers and allows them to add a different\nnuance to the blend.  The bushes are old,\nold, old and are referred to as \u2018the ladies\u2019 since they are all named after\nAunts in Walter\u2019s family tree \u2013 names like Phyllida, Miriam and Tamsin are less\noften heard nowadays but are alive and kicking in the hills of the Coquet\nValley!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The darkness was\nfalling, as was the rain so we repaired inside for some refreshment and sleep \u2013\nGin was perhaps sampled but purely in a professional manner \u2013 what goes on tour\netc etc\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday morning\nbrought a tour of the distillery and a chance to meet Chris Garden, who has\nquickly become a big name in the world of craft Gin.  He was the distiller at Sipsmith\u2019s until 2014\nwhen he elected to move up to Newcastle where his wife\u2019s family live.  As a result of his career in Hammersmith, and\nnow the 5 years at Hepple, it is likely that nobody has greater experience in\nsmall-batch distilling than Chris in the UK and as a consequence his role is\nvital to the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And boy does he\nknow what he\u2019s talking about.  His\nenthusiasm is infectious, his chemistry lesson was the clearest I\u2019ve ever\nexperienced and might have helped my GCSE\u2019s and his clear joy in the juniper\njust makes you want to give up drinking anything else \u2013 so we slowly sliced a\nlemon and polished some glasses\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t bore you\nmuch longer apart from to say the Hepple story is not just one story but a\nwhole panoply of riches that many other Gin\u2019s would give their right tentacle\nfor, too many stories almost but I\u2019ll list them here in no particular order:<\/p>\n\n\n\n