Foraged by Fred the Forager, distilled by Wayfinder Distillery…
Take a Sip on The Wild Side!
Much of early summer was spent on development work with the fabulous folks at Wayfinder Distillery in Beaconsfield, owned by Laurie Othen, in creating a new foraged Summer Gin to promote the conservation work of the Chiltern Society – an organisation whose primary focus is to conserve the wildlife habitats of the Chilterns Hills and their surrounding areas of natural beauty. You can find out more about their work here… www.chilternsociety.org.uk
Around 18 different botanicals were foraged on hot sunny days to bring out their maximum potential and transformed into the (obviously secret) formula to develop an uplifting new flavour for our limited edition Chilterns Seasonal Gin – the Summer Gin marking the first of a unique hand-crafted series (See media release below).
Although I cannot disclose the exact ingredients (for fear of torture or worse still), many pleasant days of foraging and ultra fresh (literally just-gathered) deliveries of delights such as gorse blossom, 2 kinds of cherry and sloe blossom, cuckoo flower, elderflower and sweet woodruff saw to it that a full and diverse flavour palette was developed from which to blend our gin. All in all 18 different botanicals were tinctured and tried together in the blending process until a well rounded flavour with a signature of summer flowers was settled upon. The result – fresh and flowery with a citrus afternote that lingers on the palette – both refreshing and delightful, just like the Chilterns hills themselves!
The profits from Chiltern Society Seasonal Gin go directly to support the Chiltern Society and their work in conserving vital wildlife habitats for our future. For this reason, as if the delightful flavour on its own was not enough, I highly recommend that you try some for yourself! To get in on the action you can purchase a rather lovely re-useable ceramic bottle (ideal for your own sloe gin experiments too or you should even be able to get it refilled if you visit the distillery)… here’s the link to purchase.
Check out the press release below from the gin launch for more info on this wondrous nectar and to see the product launch event!
Chiltern Society Seasonal Gin Launch
Published on August 21, 2017
We are delighted to announce the launch of our first limited edition Seasonal Gin, flavoured with cherry blossom, elderflower and orange.
This delicious gin has been specially created for us by the Wayfinders Distillery in Beaconsfield. Laurie Othen, the enterprising owner of Wayfinders, is excited to be part of this project and has generously offered to donate profits from the sale of the gin to the Chiltern Society in order to support our conservation work in the Chilterns.
The botanicals which give the gin its unique flavour were foraged in the Chilterns countryside by Fred The Forager from The Wild Side of Life. It was then down to Wayfinders to combine the ingredients to come up with the final product which really offers a true taste of the Chilterns.
At the launch event held at Northolt Barn at the Chiltern Open Air Museum, guests were able to taste the classic combination of Summer Gin and tonic or more adventurously, Summer Gin and all-natural fresh apple juice kindly donated by Chiltern Ridge of Chartridge. Both combinations proved very popular.
Summer Gin is available to purchase here.
Every bottle sold will be helping our efforts to preserve the Chilterns countryside. What better excuse could there be a glass or two of this wonderful seasonal gin?
Cheers!
The Chilterns Summer Gin development team
