From seasonal gins to limited-edition vodkas, the North East is quietly going about the business of producing a range of spirits that rival the very best.
For many, that news might come as quite a revelation. While we may be familiar with the names of some of the spirits produced, and have most probably sampled more than a few at local pubs and bars that stock them, we are less aware of where - and certainly how - they are made.
We tend to know our beers, and are proud of our range of top local breweries, but what about other boozy treats? We have the region's only winery - Laneberg Wine in Gateshead - which is a hidden treasure in Team Valley where it takes English grapes and then crushes, processes and bottles at its Team Valley plant to produce award-winning wonders.
Read more: first whisky stills arrive in Wooller
And there are other top quality drinks including liqueurs and mead. To offer an idea of what the region has to offer, here is a guide to some of the distilleries around the North East and to other makers and creators of top tipples.
Hepple
A tiny distillery in the Coquet Valley collects the wilds of nature and tames them into a spirit with big multi-layered flavours. The making of it is a journey which began in Walter Riddell's native Hepple in north Northumberland with the help of childhood friend - and now food writer - Valentine Warner.
Ingredients include green juniper from the local moors and the likes of lovage and blackcurrant leaf, all harvested at different times of year. The company is green in all ways, also spearheading one the most ambitious juniper restoration and propagation projects in the UK.
SteamPunk
This was the creation of Charlie Gibbs and developed from a chat around the kitchen table at his Gateshead home with wife Julie. Soon onto a winner with the original SteamPunk gin, the company sold off its original Northumberland Gin Company and Hexham Gin in order to concentrate on its core brand which won a gold medal at the 2016 World Gin Masters in London.
It also spawned the likes of an extra-strength Pirate gin, in a distinctive poison bottle; flavoured varieties and an Angel of the North Gin to mark the sculpture's 20th anniversary - which added a herb from their own garden, close to the Angel, to the original botanicals of juniper, lemon, grapefruit, star anise and cardamom. There followed spiced rum too. Even in tough times - 2020 - the company was voted Alcohol Producer of the Year by Aspire Magazine. For more about the company see here.
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WL Distillery
This independent Durham based distillery, which produces hand-crafted premium spirits with a focus on small-batch gins and nature at its heart, was founded by Sunderland-born Scott Wilson-Laing in 2019 with crowdfunding help and success rapidly followed, with the debut 1st Edition gin an award-winning hit.
He'd been inspired on sampling European and Mediterranean flavours while volunteering abroad as an archaeologist and returned keen to capture an authentic taste of his home region. Favours are strongly inspired by the Great British garden and he wanted to translate nostalgic childhood memories of the likes of autumnal blackberries, pears and apples into his spirit which alongside hand-picked uses natural mineral spring water in the process.
Packaging is also hand-labelled packaging, ensuring that no two bottles are the same, and the company thinks outside the box with themed seasonal additions, such as limited-edition festive gins in mini Christmas tree and star-shape bottles and heart-shape gin sets for Valentine's day. The enterprising company switched making sanitiser for the NHS during the pandemic but thankfully normal gin-making service has resumed. Find out more here.
Poetic License
Anyone who ever thought gin was boring or winced at the quinine in its accompanying tonic has not sampled the range of this Sunderland company which has come up with no end of variations on a theme and whose arty bottle labels are familar sight at well-stocked local bars.
From a summery strawberries and cream-flavour Picnic Gin to a winter-warmer Fireside Gin, the pioneers are forever experimenting beyond their core range of Northern Dry Gin (43.2%) and Old Tom Gin - plus there's a Graceful Vodka too - which are all produced in a 500-litre still called Gracie. And the team cleverly keep people interested with limited-time-only, one-batch newcomers - such as Cherry and Basil - alongside its one-off range, The Rarities. Keep up to speed here with what's on offer.
Northumberland Gin Company
Read here the story behind the company which tells how family inspiration and nostalgia shaped the small-batch hand-crafted success story that is Alnwick Gin. This award-winner created in the rural heart of Northumberland has become a favourite with its locally-sourced botanicals - 11 of them - and key flavours of juniper, rosehip and lavender - rounded off, says the company, with "just a hint of fennel".
The original Alnwick Gin is a recreation of the family recipe which combines smoothness with a sweet smoky finish. In the range there's also a Firestorm Gin, described as having 'a subtle afterglow that captures the true spirit of ancient Northumbria', plus sloe gins, limited-editions and liqueurs: see here.
Lindisfarne Mead
The world-famous mead - with its label inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels - is made, mixed, labelled and bottled in-house at a winery on Holy Island. Production dates back to the late 1950s and is itself inspired by the ancient meads and island history of the island wher St Aidan’s monastery was founded in 643AD. In fact, mead production can date back to the Roman occupation.
There are now various versions of its traditional mead - spiced, dark and pink - plus fruit wines and spirit drinks such as Toffee Vodka & Wild Strawberry. It describes the Alnwick Rum producers, below, as its sister company. See here.
Alnwick Rum Company Ltd
Founded in 1914, the company started out with a uniquely blended 'legendary dark rum', said to be a favourite amongst sailors and fisherman in the North East. It was taken over by the Harry Hotspur Holdings group in 2013 and business now takes in a full range of rums and liqueurs. There's now also a Lindisfarne Gin and a resurrected 1950s Glen Aln Whisky.
Alnwick Rum, based on a 90-year-old recipe, is now actually blended (using rums from Guyana and Jamaica) in Holland and bottled in Scotland but its sense of local history lingers long, like the finish of the drink.
Ad Gefrin distillery
We might be some time off being able to sample the Northumbrian Single Malt from what is to be Northumberland's first commercial whisky distillery but it surely will be worth the wait.
Stills only recently arrived in Wooler where the distillery - forming part of the hugely amibitious £10.4m visitor centre in the north of the county - will make use of ingredients from within a 25-mile radius. Local farmers will grow the barley and water will be drawn from the Cheviot Hills.
Durham Distillery
This small-batch craft distillery launched in 2014 and - under a logo whose design is a modern interpretation of the Rose Window of Durham Cathedral - created the popular Durham Gin and Durham Vodka which started selling in the likes of Fenwick Food Hall in Newcastle and UK-wide Majestic Wines. It has big ambitions too, planning a move from the outskirts of Durham to the city centre, the first whisky to be distilled in the North East and ideas to devedlop a visitor destination. Follow its news here.
Noveltea
Ok not quite a spirit but an inspired mix which makes this tipple suitable at pretty much any time of day. And it's worth a mention as it has such a good story behind it.
German nationals Vincent Efferoth and Lukas Passia, who met as students at Newcastle University, were inspired by their experience of British culture - namely our love of tea and Geordie's equal passion for booze - to merge the two in a unique drink which they launched at Fenwick in 2017 and has gone on to win awards. There were initially two versions - The Tale of Tangier, which infuses cold-brewed mint tea with rum, and the The Tale of Earl Grey which is our well-loved brew with gin - and it now has a third: Oolong Tea with Whisky. Oo indeed: see here.
Pitwheel Distillery
With a pitwheel emblem capturing the local Wingate monument and area's mining heritage, this tiny distillery is part of the home of the Rickard family who in 2019, facing the treat of redundancy, decided to make a business of a passion for home-brewing. And so gin-making saved the day and the result is an award-winning range which includes a signature craft classic dry gin; spices, raspberry and vanilla, orange and ginger and navy strength. Find out more here.
The Newcastle Gin Company
The gin company, founded by Harry Vaulkhard in 2013, has its home at city bar-restaurant Bealim House where the gin distillery is described as Newcastle's first: "the city’s only working in-house gin still" says the pub which also hosts tasting events.
The making of Newcastle Gin is described as "every drop lovingly hand crafted over 72 hours and taken to bottling strength using highly purified Newcastle water". It's a light floral gin infused with subtle notes of juniper, sumac, orange peel, Iranian hibiscus, rose petal and coriander - and a couple of secret ingredients. There's a pink gin and flavoured variety too. See here for more about the company and here for information on Bealim House.
