The story of our November gin of the month begins with wine. Back in the early 1970s Bolney Wine Estate (then known as Bookers Vineyard) was one of the new vineyards that formed part of the modern revival in English wine making. Having grown from a modest three acres back then to 39 today, the vineyard, though tiny by international standards, produces world class still and sparkling wines.
But how does this end up leading us to gin? Well, even wine making on a relatively small scale still produces a lot of waste as the grapes are reduced to a pulpy mass of skins, flesh and pips, known as marc, which has little use — meaning that around a third of each harvest’s grape juice ends up on the compost heap. Tragic.
So, instead of seeing this valuable commodity simply discarded, the ingenious folk over at Foxhole Spirits decided to collect the juice and ferment it to make another batch of English wine, but not for drinking. Instead it’s sent off to the distillery to be turned into the spirit at the heart of Foxhole Gin.
What we like about this story is that it really puts the craft into craft gin. Instead of the 48 hours or so that it takes for most gins to be made from the base grain spirit, the crew at Foxhole must go through the entire grape-growing, harvesting and pressing process before they can get their hands on that vital juice and start making their gin.
So what does the end product of all this time and effort taste like? We cracked open the Burgundy style wine bottle that Foxhole comes in (nice touch) to find out: and it’s worth the wait. Initially you’re greeted with a delicate, citrus aroma and on first sip the distinctive notes of grapefruit and lemon (some say they can detect orange too, we weren’t so sure). This builds through the more complex botanicals, but remains fresh and light, finishing with a pleasant hint of bitterness on the palate.
We enjoyed it most with our Citrus and Rose blends, but found that its light touch went well with any of our botanicals.
They’re on to their third batch now, so pick up a bottle here at www.foxholespirits.com.