‘Fit for a king’
Connecticut entrepreneur and his team have invented a cocktail with ingredients from Highclere Castle, the real ‘Downton Abbey’
The King Charles Cocktail recipe
(adults-only, of course):
2 oz. Highclere Castle Gin .25 oz. Macallan 12 or Single Malt Scotch
.2 5 oz orange curacao
.5 oz lemon juice
Shake well and strain in a cocktail coup or martini glass and garnish with a rosemary sprig.
It started with a cold call email to an English castle from a “Connecticut Yankee” who had an idea for something tasty. Now it’s a $45 million business with connections to one of the the oldest distilleries in England and a castle known all across the world as Downton Abbey. The castle’s real name isn’t Downton Abbey, it’s Highclere Castle, from which stems the name of a London Dry Gin that takes its name from the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, a 5,000-acres estate and home so vast that its number of rooms are estimated at somewhere between 250 and 300.
And about that gin: the idea for it came from CEO Adam von Gootkin, a Connecticut entrepreneur who, when he sent that email to Highclere in 2015, already knew a thing or two about spirits. Von Gootkin and Peter Kowalczyk, a co-founder and COO of the gin company, had previously run Onyx Spirits Co. in East Hartford, brewing Onyx Moonshine in small batches and operating a tasting room.
Plus, von Gootkin has an ancestor or two himself who knew their way
around a distillery, as his great grandfather ran a business in Connecticut that involved spirits during Prohibition.
But even before Highclere Castle Gin came about, von Gootkin and Earl and Countess Carnarvon partnered to launch the Highclere Castle Cigar Co., made with Foundation Cigars and cigar blender Nicholas Melillo in Nicaragua, von Gootkin said. Among the highly rated cigars, the Highclere Castle Victorian Toro is rated by Cigar Aficionado
as a Top 25 cigar. The cigar was blended with flavors similar to those used at Highclere 100 years ago, von Gootkin said.
The flavors of Highclere and its “centuries of hospitality” also infuse the gin, von Gootkin said, including from the orangery there, the lavender (first planted there in the 9th century) and juniper grown there and more. An element von Gootkin said he sees as “the most exciting and unique” element
of the gin is that oats grown at the part of Highclere Castle’s lands that are a “working farm are used in it, an idea that came from Lord Carnarvon.”
“My intent was to create the perfect gin,” von Gootkin said. “My passion is for the creation of spirits. That’s my magic.”
Part of the magic also is that Earl and Countess Carnarvon have very astute business minds and creation of the gin was “100 percent collaboration,” von Gootkin said. “They are quietly noble. Elegant and authentic.”
Von Gootkin describes himself as a “sensory” kind of person and said he learned a lot about food and cooking from aunts he spent time with when younger, finding that the “quality people put into things is fascinating.”
But while clearly the brand’s major fan now, von Gootkin said that when the Highclere Castle Gin process started, he “didn’t really like gin.”
“That was what made it a challenge for me,” he said, noting it also made him unbiased and objective. “It is exporting the luxury part of Highclere Castle to all corners of the world.” While the Highclere gin celebrates the castle’s history, von Gootkin said it also is about sustainable agriculture and manufacturing.
The Highclere Castle Gin brand was launched in 2019, and the company is “very much and an Anglo-american one,” said von Gootkin, a father of three who keeps Highclere Castle Spirits, LLC offices in a hip but quaint part of the Witch Hazel Works, an historic set of buildings in the Centerbrook section of Essex where witch hazel was once produced. The company also has an office at the castle.
Since it was launched, the gin, sold in a bottle that has a shape inspired by Highclere Castle, has pulled in multiple accolades around the globe, including 32 international Gold Awards, and more than 100 awards total, according to the company. Von Gootkin said the company distributes throughout the United Kingdom, in 30 markets in the United States, seven EU countries and has e-commerce delivery to the United Kingdom, 40 American markets and 27 EU countries and it expects to expand to other countries.
Von Gootkin said right now the company is producing about 180,000 bottles a year and expects to be at 300,000 bottles by 2025. A bottle of the gin sells for about $35, as “that’s our goal, affordable luxury,” he said, also noting that the gin also is served “in many of the most exclusive places in London.”
Meanwhile, the company is this month introducing the King Charles Cocktail, describing it as a “regal blend of gin and whisky,” or as von Gootkin puts it, “a cocktail fit for a king.”
Developed in anticipation of King Charles III’S coronation, the cocktail combines what are understood to be his favorites, gin and Scotch whisky, von Gootkin said, noting that the Earl of Carnarvon is godson to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“The Coronation is an extraordinary recognition of continuity following such challenging times. It is a wonderful idea to create a King Charles Cocktail to celebrate and lift our spirits — a new era in fact. Full of music and pageantry, I am sure it will bring us all together not just in the UK but around the world,” Lord Carnarvon said in a statement about the new cocktail.
Von Gootkin, who describes the cocktail as “delicious,” said the company is sharing the recipe as a toast to the king and his work and so that all might raise a glass to toast him.
The plan is to officially unveil the cocktail at St. James Palace in May, where there will be dinner for donors of the Queens Commonwealth Trust, von Gootkin said. He quipped that he will be a “Connecticut Yankee in King Charles’ court.” Highclere Castle Gin selected trust as its charity partner and will “work in tandem with QCT to support young leaders throughout the Commonwealth with flexible funding, practical tools and support, and a vibrant network to help them transform their communities,” according to the trust.