Q&A: Sweating over juniper
What exactly is your role in the gin production process?
Running a still is literally like watching a kettle boil every day, but the key areas are the assessment and gathering of the botanicals.
The recipe was drawn up back in the 1800s and has remained the same. Although I am only the current custodian of it, it's the ability to be consistent crop upon crop that's important. The same kind of attention continues all the way through the process.
One of the things that people often don't realise about gin distillers is that we don't actually manufacture alcohol. We buy in neutral grain spirit and re-distil it.
Neutral alcohol, by definition, doesn't have flavour, but it does have character. There can potentially be differences between one delivery and another.
The next thing is how we put it all together. That, again, is about being consistent in the trigger points that cause us to make various decisions. Nothing is done as an automated process, but there are constant checks - on the nose, on the hydrometer, on the watch - to make sure the end product is recognisably Beefeater.
London-style gin can be produced anywhere in the world. How important is it, therefore, for the production of Beefeater to be based in London?
The European definition of distilled gin is that it must be made from neutral alcohol, but the flavour must come from natural materials, meaning juniper berries, and a process of distillation.
It then goes on to say London gin is a type of distilled gin. That's about to change.
We've been bouncing back and forth with the European parliament to get them to flesh out the bones
of that rather skeletal London gin definition. It will be a sort of quality mark.
Gin distillers were all concentrated in London in the 1800s, but moved out again in the 20th century. We stayed put and found ourselves virtually the only one.
The Yeoman on the bottle links us in geographically to London, and even New Yorkers admit that London is now the cocktail capital of the world. So it works for us very nicely, and it makes sense for us to be in London.
The wild growth and cultivation of juniper berries makes their sourcing unreliable year by year. Why has nobody ever come up with a more commercial cultivation process?
I occasionally wake up in a cold sweat at four in the morning thinking "my God, who is going to bother climbing up the hills with a stick and a sieve and sack, hitting little thorny bushes in Umbria in 50 years time?"
Last November, I went to Italy to see the process of the harvesting. The fact is that a lot of it goes to Germany for sorting.
I spoke to the guys in Germany and said "I'm concerned about how long-term the future is for picking juniper off the hills" and one of them said to me: "Yeah, my grandfather used to be concerned about that".
It's what they do, they're quite happy to go on doing it.
There's another reason, too - in those areas where the juniper berries grow, there's a fungus that grows in the soil. Where that is present, the bushes bear fruit. Where it isn't, you've got the bushes but no fruit. It's things like that that make it extremely hard to replicate.
You also worked in the wine industry. How have the gin and wine sectors changed in your 30 years in the business?
Back in the mid-60s, people in the UK really didn't drink much wine. What we have seen since is a huge emergence of interest and education in the consumer. That didn't happen to gin for a long time, but I am seeing it beginning to get that interest behind it. The fact that there are lots of different gins and styles coming to market is indicative of that.
It's The Publican's round. What are you drinking?
A good gin and tonic takes a lot of beating.
CV:
1995 - present
Master distiller, Beefeater Gin distillery
1983
Distillery manager, Plymouth Gin
1978
Assistant manager, Plymouth Gin
1971
Assistant distiller, Plymouth Gin
1967
Management trainee with wine merchant and gin distiller Seager, Evans and Co, then controller of Plymouth Gin
1965
Trainee in wine cellar at Harrods
