GIN GENIUS

The botanicals that give one of our most iconic drinks its flavour grow in gorgeous glasshouses – and you can take a tour

Asparkling waterfall of glass gushes out of an 18th century paper mill and writhes to form two curved glasshouses, then plunges into the River Test. It’s like an eccentric Heath Robinson/Willy Wonka contraption – or a symbolic torrent of gin pouring out of the distillery.

The gorgeous structure, designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the British architect behind the London 2012 Olympic cauldron, is the Bombay Sapphire disti l lery, and it’s where you’ll find the flavours of your gin and tonic growing.

There is firstly juniper, because it’s not legally gin unless it’s predominantly flavoured with juniper. Then lemon and coriander (most gins include coriander), angelica, liquorice, almonds, cassia bark, orris root – from Iris florentina – and cubeb berries from Java ( Piper cubeba) and grains of paradise from Ghana ( Aframomum melegueta, a relative of ginger, which has a peppery, citrussy taste). The premium Star Of Bombay gin uses bergamot orange for zing and ambrette seeds from Ecuador ( Abelmoschus moschatus) for a musky, nutty creaminess.

Horticulturalist Chris Cotterell, 35, a graduate of Kew Gardens, has been growing botanicals here on the site at Laverstoke Mill, Hampshire, since 2014, when the new flagship distillery opened. In the 18th century, Laverstoke Mill held the Bank of England monopoly for manufacturing banknote paper. When papermaking ceased in 1963, the site became semiderelict. Now the buildings have been restored and visitors can tour the dis- The amazing curved glasshouses tillery, and explore Chris’s glasshouses – one tropical, one Mediterranean. Botanicals are what give a gin its distinctive flavour. German brand Monkey 47 contains, that’s right, 47 – including cranberries, blackberry, elderflowers and hawthorn berries. Tanqueray gin contains only four. Gin is so fashionable that the number of UK distilleries has more than doubled to 315 in the last five years. With botanicals, craft distillers let their imagination run riot. The Botanist – distilled on the Hebridean island of Islay – contains 22 foraged herbs and flowers, including lady’s bedstraw, bog myrtle and bitter tansy. Graveney gin, made in Tooting, south London, uses ‘superfood’ goji berries, baobab and pink grapefruit. Welsh Dà Mhìle gin is infused with seaweed that gives it a pale green tinge.

As Chris explains, some ingredients in Bombay Sapphire have been hard to source in the UK. Medieval spice traders used to claim that grains of paradise grew only in the Garden of Paradise. ‘It’s still very difficult to get hold of a plant,’ explains Chris. ‘The flowers are nondescript, so it’s of little horticultural value in the UK.’

In the Mediterranean house there are irises for orris root, which adds a distinctive Parma violet aroma. It’s expensive, as the rhizomes take three years to grow. ‘Chanel No 5 perfume uses a huge amount of orris – that pushes the price up,’ says senior Bombay Sapphire brand ambassador Sam Carter.

The traditional method of extracting botanical flavours is to boil them in the base spirit; but Bombay Sapphire uses the vapour infusion process. Botanicals are placed in perforated copper baskets; when the spirit vapour rises, it captures the flavours, giving a lighter gin.

‘Ninety per cent of what we taste comes from smell,’ says Sam. ‘You get volatile botanicals first: the green, citrussy notes. Then the juniper, reminiscent of a pine forest. Then the earthy notes: like walking through a forest after it’s rained. Finally, the floral, peppery, spicy notes that linger on the palate after you’ve swallowed.’

Self-guided Bombay Sapphire distillery tours, £16; horticultural experience with Chris Cotterell, £40. For further information, visit distillery. bombaysapphire.com.