Last Saturday was the day that I was able to get over to northern Hampshire to the Bombay Sapphire Distillery at Laverstoke Mill. I have been wanting to visit this attraction since it opened its doors in 2014 and when I used to live down the road from it in Basingstoke and drove past it a few times. Unfortunately, the bloke and I never got to visit it before we moved to west London, exhausted from daily and expensive commutes and fed up of living in a flat. However, this experience was a gift, and we got to visit this weekend with the glorious spring-like weather.
The distillery attraction contains the historical buildings, a newly-architected greenhouse filled with botanicals to demonstrate what goes into Bombay Sapphire gins, a movie about the distillery, a bar, a cafe, a gift shop, and a few rooms for other purposes, such as the Cocktail Masterclass. There are a choice of a couple of different tours. The main tour is simply just a tour of the site with a cocktail, or you can pay a bit more for the Cocktail Masterclass tour. It's the same as the main tour, and you get the cocktail, but you then get to create or learn how to create three additional cocktails at the end.
The site of Laverstoke Mill dates from the Domesday Book. Bombay Sapphire moved onto the site in 2014, but it was previously owned by Henry Portal in the 1700s. The mill was used to create cotton for bank notes. This production printed bank notes for 500 currencies, and it closed in the 1960s. (That part of the business formed De La Rue, a company that I knew well because I worked there for over two years; their main production of bank notes is down the road at Overton, which I toured as an employee many years ago now.) The water that runs through the site is crystal clear; it is the rivert Test, which travels through Hampshire.
The tour started with a briefing, and then we entered a room where we were told to fill a glass with ice and then get a sample of gin from a choice of three different types of gin: Bombay Sapphire (the original gin), Bombay Sunset (limited edition), and Bombay Bramble (a limited edition in a reddish colour).
I selected the Sunset variety as I'm familiar with Bombay Sapphire as it is and even own a bottle of it. The gin was dispensed from a little button.
The Bombay Sapphire tour guide told me to pair my gin with orange and star anise as per their recommendation. There were two other tables for the other gins with different spice and citrus that are best paired with those gins.
They recommended a half of a can of the tonic and then a mix of the gin with the ice, and this did make the perfect combination for this gin.
We were then told to take our gin and tonic into the theatre so that we could watch a movie on Bombay Sapphire's history and introduction to the flavours used to create the gin. We sat sipping our gins, except for me because I pretty much downed it quickly. After the movie, we walked outside to the glass greenhouses and a view over the river where we learned more during the second part of the guided tour.
We were told about the history of the building, which dates from the early 1700s.
Along the side of this building are the worker's homes. The end one is converted into the cafe. We were told to look through one of the windows of a larger warehouse building where we could see the stills in use - Henry and Victoria.
This led us around the glass greenhouses, which were constructed in 2014.
Thomas Heatherwick was the architect responsible for the glass greenhouse structures and guiding the sustainable site at Laverstoke Mill. (One of his other creations was the London Olympic Stadium.) We were told more about the different botanicals used in the gin, and we were then allowed to go into these greenhouses to see the plants growing for ourselves. The greenhouses are built to take the heat from the factory, so they are quite warm inside. Iris root, angelica, lemon, grains of paradise, juniper, coriander, almond, and cassia were some of the plants we were shown and told to look out for in the greenhouses.
After looking at the greenhouse and watching a water vole on the bank along the river, we headed into another building where we could see the different botanicals. Because nuts are included, we were told to not unscrew the jars. The tour guide opened lids from the spices and grinded up some of them so we could all have a sniff. We were also shown a couple of vintage Bombay Sapphire gin bottles to see the brand evolve. The brand gets its name from a famous sapphire, the Bombay Jewel, the largest blue sapphire. The branding originally contained the image of the sapphire along with a portrait of Queen Victoria. Today, the bottle is a blue colour. (The gin itself is not blue in colour; it is clear.)
In this building are two of the other stills used, and we were told about the basic gin-distilling process in the room.
After the tour, we went on to our Cocktail Masterclass with Chelsea. She helped us to create two different types of cocktail and made one additional one for all of us to try. The ingredients were all laid out for us on the tables.
The first cocktail we made was the Laverstoke cocktail, a special gin cocktail created for the opening of the site. It was a refreshing cocktail, and I really enjoyed it. It included squeezed and crushed half of lime, 15ml of St. Germain, 15ml of dry Vermouth or fortified wine (Martini brand), a single shot of Bombay Sapphire gin, and half of a glass bottle of ginger tonic. This was garnished with a slice of ginger and a sprig of mint.
The Martini cocktail was made for us with equal amounts of gin and Martini fortified wine along with some lemon peel. (I think that was all of the ingredients.)
The final cocktail - Gin Sour - we made ourselves. I selected the elderflower cordial, but there were a choice of two additional cordials - a ginger one and a fruity one. A shot of Bombay Sapphire gin was also included, and I added a slice of orange and a slice of lemon slightly crushed. The product was then strained through into a glass.
After the cocktail-making, we headed to the cafe for a bite to eat. We had ham sandwiches, and I had the Queen Bee cocktail in the bar, which I thought looked very trendy with its blue marble-effect countertops. The cocktail was a little too strong for me personally.
This sums it up for the Bombay Sapphire Cocktail Masterclass experience. We had a really good time learning about the distillery and enjoying making and drinking cocktails.
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