I was recently invited to an absolutely lovely day at the Warner’s Gin distillery in the picture perfect village of Harrington, Leicestershire. During the visit, as well as having a delicious lunch in the pub, we learned an awful lot of facts about Warner’s Gin that I’m going to share with you now.

1. Warner’s were the first to create flavoured gin. It all started with Tom’s beloved Mum Adéle putting fresh elderflower in a bottle of regular London Dry Gin and them realising it was delicious. Lots of companies followed but Warner’s have many unique techniques to ensure that their flavoured gins are natural, unlike many of the others out there.
2. Warner’s are a small company and on every bottle there is the name of the human who distilled that batch. Literally the same person who loaded up the distiller with the fresh ingredients, set it to work and then came back regularly to check the flavours.
3. They make 10 different types of gin, (at the last count!) including their standard dry gin and then a range of flavours such as elderflower, lemon balm, apple and pear, rhubarb, raspberry, honey and sloe.
4. They use their own spring water and grow loads of the ingredients, (botanicals) on the farm, and are passionate about trying to increase that to make their gin as sustainable and low mileage as possible, they also have hives of bees and collect the honey from their own hives for the honey bee gin. Also available is a gin called Farmed and Foraged in which all ingredients can be found within a bee’s flight of the farm. (3 miles).
5. The team is like a family and they are massively into empowering the many women that work for the company. Everyone we met was so happy and excited to be a part of the business. I’ve never seen so much enthusiasm for gin before, and I know some people who really really love it!!
6. You can mix the gins with other things! Rhubarb gin and ginger ale is a great combination, something I’d never have thought to put together. There are loads and loads of delicious cocktail ideas on their website to give you inspiration.

If any of the above has captured your interest, you can visit yourself on one of their fascinating gin tours. See the beautiful setting for yourself, learn all about the ingredients they are growing themselves, hear about their incredible sustainability ideas for the future of the business and best of all, sample lots of the gins! Also, the picture you see on the bottles, it’s all real! Also, the picture you see on the bottles, it’s all real! It highlights some of the beautiful buildings around the distillery, it’s a village that rivals any in The Cotswolds for prettiness.

Best of all? I’m giving you a chance to win some gin! I have one bottle of Classic London Dry and one bottle of Rhubarb Gin to give away, both with the option to be personalised. (2 winners will be drawn and will get either the London Dry or the Rhubarb, winners will be selected at random and must be over 18.)