Bond Street Distillery

 

Last Saturday we entered the 'Gin-dom of Heaven', locally known as Bond Street Distillery. What an amazing location; dating back to the late 1800s the building has seen many occupants before becoming home to Bond Street Distillery (BSD). 

It began in 2018 when Sally Faulkner, founder and head distiller, purchased the building and began renovating it to become the distillery, bar, Gin-school and function bar it is today. On all three floors you can see carefully restored elements of the original hosiery building: old beams, sand blasted brick and original feature window all create a high class environment. 

Our visit began with Afternoon Tea served on a three tier copper stand in keeping with the copper surroundings relating to the gin still. A delicious selection of sandwiches with slices of quiche, vine tomatoes and pepper rings filled the top tier. The second tier served traditional scones, clotted cream and raspberry gin infused jam, whilst the lower tier held a selection of desserts. 

From top to bottom our Afternoon Tea was delicious, accompanied by tea, coffee or gin with mixer. My first gin choice was Bond Street Raspberry served over ice with Fever Tree Lemonade garnished with raspberry and mint. 

My husband opted for Bond Street Blood Orange served with Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic and orange garnish. We both chose BSD Signature for our second gin; a 40% ABV with hints of orange blossom and high notes of pink peppercorn complimenting the pine and citrus of a traditional London dry. Our Signature Gins were served with Fever Tree Indian Tonic and garnished with orange and pink peppercorn.

A distillery tour followed, a step into the hub of the building to meet Claire, the gin still, standing tall and striking with her copper gleaming brightly. Sally gave an extensive insight into how ethanol is turned into gin using the distilling process. Separating the 'heads' 'heart' and 'tails' of the distilled liquid is such a precise moment in distilling, getting this wrong can easily result in a bitter taste to the finished gin, distilling is certainly a fine art.

Following our tour it was time to make our own gin, something we have not experienced before. Bond Street Distillery have a dedicated room on the first floor for their Gin-school in which there was extensive array of botanicals to choose from. We thought this would be an overwhelming task but soon found botanicals we both preferred. With careful measuring we blended them together until we had an aroma we both liked and which would, fingers crossed, produce an enjoyable gin. 

Within the Gin-school are eight mini stills, they looked amazing all shining in a row. Each still has it's own name; two that caught my eye were Sweet Caroline and The Engineer however our Gin was distilled on Baby Gary.

The whole experience felt very very special; beautiful surroundings with the copper stills and equipment. Our starter alcohol liquid, water and botanical blends were all added to Baby Gary and heated until evaporation occurred. The gas was then passed through copper pipes which were cooled with continuously flowing cold water to turn it back to liquid. It was amazing to watch especially when our gin began to drip out.

After a while we had to carefully check our liquid to ensure we did not get any of the bitter tails. Neither of us had any real idea of how it would taste compared to the fragrance of our mixed botanicals but to our delight it tasted really good and we could taste the various flavours we had chosen. 

Once the distilling was complete Sally checked the alcohol content and adjusted it by adding water to around 40%ABV. It was now time to bottle our unique 'Hearnden Dry'. It was amazing to not only learn about distilling but to make our own gin which we can now enjoy at home. The recipe is stored at Bond Street so another bottle can alway be distilled again in the future.

Bond Street Distillery is certainly a venue to visit if you like gin, however I would recommend a visit to anyone. The high finish venue is the perfect place to enjoy one of their cocktails, try the enomatic wine machine or enjoy a draught beer. Their Gin-school experience makes a perfect gift and is certainly a day to remember with your very own Gin!

Bond Street Distillery, 127 Upper Bond Street, Hinckley LE10 1RT