The adage ‘keeping it in the family’ certainly rings true for the makers of the delightful springtime gin our members can find in their May 2021 Gin of the Month box.
Based at Holmes Farm in Brindle, Lancashire, this entrepreneurial family came together to transform a disused cowshed into the award-winning Brindle Distillery, home of Cuckoo Gin. Brimming with homegrown botanicals and fresh spring water from the farm, May’s Gin of the Month is a bespoke edition, created exclusively for Craft Gin Club members.
As well as being an expression of the landscape in which it was created, this special gin also has family and community and charity at its heart, as we reveal below.
Cuckoo Solace Craft Gin Club Special Edition
Distilled exclusively for Craft Gin Club in Brindle, Lancashire
40% ABV
Botanicals:
Juniper, coriander, angelica, grapefruit, lemon, lime, rosemary, lemon thyme, basil, Halkidiki olives, Nocellara olives, Cuquillo olives, orris root, cinnamon, liquorice root and cardamom.
Tasting Notes:
In this well-rounded juniper-rich gin, you’re first greeted by pronounced grapefruit and lime notes on the nose, as well as piney elements coming from the juniper. The gin is then refreshingly herbaceous on the palate, with the olives evoking elegant Mediterranean flavours. Those give way to a long-lasting finish characterised by notes of angelica, juniper and lemon. Overall, it’s a wonderfully crisp, light and savoury gin, punctuated with bright citrus bursts. Delicious!
The Spirit of Family
The Brindle Distillery team
The village and civil parish of Brindle sit within the borough of Chorley in Lancashire, in the heart of northwest England. Surrounded by rolling hills, lush green fields and abundant fresh produce, it’s every bit as idyllic as it sounds. It’s also where the makers of the May Gin of the Month are based.
Operating from a converted cowshed at Holmes Farm, Brindle Distillery is fronted by Gerard and Cath Singleton, along with their son-in-law, Director and Master Distiller, Mark Long, who started off in hospitality and then moved on to selling artisan foods.
“It was a really good grounding for this industry. Food shares a lot of similarities with the drinks industry, and it was a great way to learn for myself.”
When Mark married Liz Singleton in 2016, Mark and his father-in-law Gerard began discussing how they could fuse Mark’s passion for artisan food and drink with Gerard’s family farm.
For Mark, the answer – gin – was inspired by a memorable evening spent on holiday with his wife.
“Liz and I went to Barcelona in 2013, and visited a lovely tapas bar called La Pepita. This may sound odd, coming from a Lancashire lad, but I essentially had an out-of-body experience from the delicious gin we were drinking! It was served in a copa glass – something that hadn’t really caught on in the UK yet – and garnished with juniper and rosemary, so it smelled incredible. We kept saying to ourselves, ‘This gin is amazing!’”
From there, an obsession began to develop.
“I kept experimenting with garnishes and tonics at home and trying all of the amazing new gins that were entering the market. I was essentially doing all of the research I’d need to become a gin distiller, without knowing I’d actually need the knowledge one day!”
And so, Brindle Distillery was born.
Mark Long, Brindle Distillery Director and Master Distiller
Call of the Cuckoo
The distillery’s story – and name – centres around the village of Brindle, the home of their distillery and farm.
“Brindle locals are endearingly referred to as ‘cuckoos’. The name comes from an old farmer’s tale. Each year, farmers would wait for the first call of the cuckoo as it symbolised the arrival of spring and good weather, and was a sign that they could begin harvesting. They thought if they could always keep the cuckoo in the village, they’d always have good weather and a year-round harvest. They tried to build a big wall around the cuckoo, but they didn’t build it high enough, and the cuckoo flew away. The farmer’s wives called them ‘cuckoos’, for thinking their idea could work!”
For the Brindle Distillery team, the name made sense; they wanted something that was not only a nod to their farming roots – which they’re incredibly proud of – but something that would link them to their local community, too.
Holmes Farm, Brindle
Lancashire Spirit
Diversifying a farm, and turning a cowshed into a working gin distillery in under a year is no mean feat, but with the help of the local community as well as some serious grafting, Mark, Gerard and their family were able to do exactly that. The concept of community is still very central to the distillery today.
While the team initially bought a couple of pieces of kit to try out at home, securing funding from the EU – through a scheme that focused on helping farmers to diversify – gave them the boost they needed to scale up operations. It also allowed them to concentrate on both employing local people and establishing a tourist destination in their Lancashire home.
“Lancashire is such a diverse, warm, and welcoming county. Well, the weather isn’t always warm, of course! But Mark and I are of the opinion that people from Lancashire are some of the warmest and friendliest people in the world. If you come and visit us, we will always greet you with a good meal and a drink, and you’ll have such a laugh in the process.”
Inside Brindle Distillery
And it’s this Lancashire spirit that infuses the distillery today. The team has what it calls an ‘open-door policy’, with doors open from Monday to Saturday, when the time allows. Visitors can browse the shop, enjoy a gin or two at the distillery’s The Cuckoo’s Nest bar, book themselves onto a tour, or even have a go at making their own gin using one of the distillery’s 16 mini stills.
“The bar has gone from being something we built for our wedding to being able to host 500 people a night. In between lockdowns, we were open for coffee in the afternoons, and we had different generations coming to visit us. The community aspect is a huge consideration for us and it’s absolutely essential to what we do.”
Farm-to-bottle Ethos
Cathy and Gerard Singleton
Central to the distillery’s operation is Maggie, a 400-litre copper column hybrid still, named after Gerard’s great aunt, who lived until she was 104 and happened to be particularly fond of gin.
To capture the farm-to-bottle ethos that’s so key to Brindle Distillery and Cuckoo Gin, Mark and his team use all manner of botanicals and ingredients from the land at Holmes Farm.
“One of the main features of our gin is the spring water, which we get from our farm via an aquifer. If you think about it, in a bottle of gin, most of it is actually water. We use it during distillation, and to cut down the alcohol to bottling strength. It’s been under the ground for centuries; it’s crystal-clear, with nothing added to it, and it gives the gin a really nice, clean finish.”
In terms of botanicals, wildflowers grow and are harvested on the farm, and then macerated or vapour-infused into the gins such as the Signature Cuckoo Gin, where brilliant-blue borage flowers feature heavily. Brindle Distillery also teams up with local beekeepers, The Bee Company, who are based on the farm and provide the honey that features in Brindle Distillery’s Cuckoo Sunshine Gin.
“The bees enjoy the wildflowers on our farm, and these flowers are used as botanicals in our gin, so there is a wonderful crossover there. We’re so fortunate to be able to use the produce from our farm.”
Wildflowers at Holmes Farm
The distillery also generates its own heat via biomass, which in turn is used to heat their copper still.
Finding Solace
Mark and Liz at their charity fundraiser event
“So far, it all reads like the dream story, doesn’t it? Getting married, building a gin distillery from scratch. People must be thinking: Oh, this guy is so lucky! But, as with everything in life, there are of course ups and downs.”
In 2018, towards the end of a whirlwind year, Mark’s wife, Liz, attended a routine cervical screening appointment that would dramatically change the course of events for the couple in life-altering ways.
“The results came in, and they wanted to see Liz in hospital, quickly. It turned out she had a rare and aggressive form of cervical cancer. Luckily, Liz was able to have surgery to get rid of it. It was invasive surgery, and it meant we wouldn’t be able to have any more children. It was a three-month period that went from us hearing the bad news we’d never want to hear... to us embracing a new life that wasn’t quite as we imagined it would be.”
The couple wanted to do something to thank all the people who had offered them invaluable support during their difficult time.
“I started reading a couple of books on how best to deal with trauma, so I could try to make good out of a difficult situation. We were thinking about the amazing support we’d received, and how fortunate we had been to have it, when Liz said to me: ‘We have a gin brand, why don’t we use it?’”
From there, Mark and Liz began floating ideas, and that’s when Mark happened to say the word ‘solace’ out loud.
“I looked up the meaning on my phone: ‘comfort in the time of distress’. It felt like the perfect word to sum up what Liz and I had received. The message behind the gin is not only to thank people for their help but also to support those who might be going through the same thing and might not be lucky enough to have the help we had.”
Click on Jo’s logo to find out more about this fantastic charity
The couple were also keen to highlight the work of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, a charity that Mark had been in touch with during their difficult time.
“A key part of their campaign is making sure people get themselves checked out. Early detection and prevention can save lives – as it did with Liz.”
For Mark and Liz, it was essential that their new gin – the gin that would go on to inspire this month’s Gin of the Month – would be both soothing and comforting. It also had to evoke that night in Barcelona in 2013.
“We played around with the flavours of the Mediterranean and the ingredients we love, such as olives. In fact, we love them so much that our little girl, who we are so grateful to have been able to have when we did, is even called Olive.”
Brindle Distillery’s Cuckoo Solace Gin was launched in September 2019, with a 300-person charity night event held at the distillery.
“Between the raffle and the auction, we raised an overwhelming £26,000 on the night.”
Spreading the good word about this fabulous charity
Craft Gin Club’s Contribution
To support Mark and Liz’s cause and to raise awareness of cervical cancer, Craft Gin Club is donating £10K to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust this month. To find out more, and to show your support, visit www.jostrust.org.uk
Message in a Bottle
When the Craft Gin Club partnership came about, Mark knew that the gin to share with members had to be Solace.
“I thought: if Craft Gin Club members can read the story of why our gin is called Solace, think how many lives it could potentially save in the process.”
The special edition bottle of Solace in May’s Gin of the Month Box is a unique expression, it still supports and carries the same heartfelt message at the core of their original Solace.
Cuckoo Solace Craft Gin Club Special Edition
In this bespoke edition, the all-new recipe contains additional botanicals in the form of extra angelica, which gives it its thirst-quenching nature; the introduction of a third type of olive, the Greek Halkidiki, to enhance the gin’s Mediterranean-inspired notes and an extra burst of lime, which elevates the flavour of the delicate, farm-grown botanicals. This delicious gin is also housed in a brand-new embossed glass bottle, featuring illustrations of wildflowers and botanicals that grow on the farm, sketched by local artist, Dorothy Charnley.
To make Cuckoo Solace Craft Gin Club Special Edition, the majority of the botanicals are distilled together. The following day, a selection of what they call “yummy botanicals” – fresh lemon thyme, rosemary, basil lemon, grapefruit and lime – are vapour-infused into the still.
Crisp, light, and Mediterranean-inspired, the Cuckoo Solace Craft Gin Club Special Edition is the perfect late spring and early summer tipple.
“It’s a classic London Dry Gin, but more contemporary in its style because of its savoury notes.”
Cuckoo Solace Gin Craft Club Special Edition’s exclusive features:
Lime:
Lime elevates the fresh, delicate flavours of the farm’s homegrown botanicals.
Angelica:
More angelica is used in this expression than any other Cuckoo Gin, creating a long-lasting, refreshing finish.
Halkidiki olives:
The addition of Halkidiki olives enhances the soothing and mellow character of the gin.
Try this beautiful gin in our May 2021 Perfect G&T and our May 2021 Cocktail of the Month, Craft Gin Club’s Cuckoo Bird. Find both recipes by clicking on the pictures below!
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