Tappers Darkside Coastal Wirral Gin, 50cl

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People now realise it’s not just a tonic drink - you can drink it neat, you can drink it with prosecco, add it to lemonade. It’s not that old person’s drink that your nan used to have with tonic on a Sunday afternoon.” Brightside Gin is our signature London Dry Gin and the distilled counterpart to Darkside Gin. We are the first and only Distillery in the UK to use two production techniques to create both a cold-compounded and distilled version of the same botanical recipe with fresh, natural coastal ingredients. That’s a tough one! Also because I certainly don’t want to cause offence with my answer! They are such different methods that they each have their upsides and downsides, I’d say. I think that’s really important – our ‘story’ is a truthful, transparent and genuine one, so it isn’t hard for me to be passionate about it!

Which is why we made this a priority on our bottles, to make sure it stood out from the market but also with the quality of the gin matching the bottle.” Read More Related Articles That meant there was just one major gin manufacturer in the country - Alexander Gordon of Gordon’s gin, whose product was distilled three times. Distilling is a different beast entirely. Things are more easily measured – from pressure, to temperature, to ABV and volume of cuts. The consistency is just as crucial, though, and that comes down to individual skill. I’d say because the flavour and aroma are compressed and concentrated in distillate form, it is a little more challenging when it comes to organoleptic analysis! It’s also a far riskier (and more expensive) operation compared with cold-compounding: we’re vaporising alcohol, after all! Gin got its name from genever - the Dutch word for juniper - and UK law to this day still dictates it must be predominantly flavoured with the berries.Regardless of alcohol, Halewood is one of Merseyside’s biggest manufacturing success stories, full stop. We donated over 1,000 bottles in the end, primarily to front-line NHS services across Wirral, along with some local charities like Autism Together. We spent some days on the road in the Tappers van delivering for 10 hours. I was taking calls from hospitals all over the North West and North Wales, from Lytham to Warrington, Manchester, Bangor, you name it. We had to prioritise in the end, focusing on our local area, which was a really distressing decision to take. I think it highlighted just how few independent distilleries there were at a time of crisis when the constituent component, ethanol, is of course only available to those of us who produce in-house.

People often used to like making their own homebrew, but in terms of spirits and realising you can potentially make a business of it and realising it wasn’t just sloe gin you can make at home. They started to realise you can experiment with making actual gin.New figures support James’ assertion that more and more people are investing in themselves and becoming gin makers. It was such a bizarre situation. I remember seeing on social media that some distilleries had turned their hand to making sanitiser and I had said flat out that wasn’t something we would do – we were a gin distillery and needed to focus on that. The family-run business partnered with Sir Kenny Dalglish in March 2021 to release Dalglish 7 Gin, celebrating 70 years of a football legend. Every bottle sold raised funds for Sir Kenny’s chosen charity – The Marina Dalglish Appeal.

It's testament to the growth of not just Whitley Neill the brand, but the driving force behind the rhubarb and ginger flavour.” Now, you get lots of people trying to make gins, we are seeing this wonderful proliferation of a few hundred brands coming to the market in the last year alone. Johnny [Neill] was doing that 15 years ago, using botanicals from areas of the world that made him revolutionary for so many people. An all-natural amber hue reflects the traditional method of skilful cold-compounding, lending a full-bodied mouthfeel and distinctively complex savoury taste of the sea. Stewart said: “The board is very pleased with the results for 2019, it reflects the strong investment programme in distilleries, brands and marketing in the last four years. Ian Fillis, professor of entrepreneurship at John Moores University’s Liverpool Business School said he can’t see that happening any time soon.

Stephen Wundke from Taste Cheshire reviewed Tappers Gin on the 6th August 2018

The business has consistently grown since its record loss in 2015 and the appointment of the management team. The latest results are the best in the company’s entire 41-year history.” Around 1820, there was something of a mini ‘ginaissance’, with British soldiers using it to mask the bitter taste of quinine, a malaria deterrent, marking the birth of gin and tonic. With the region home to various manufacturers - not least brewing and distilling giants Halewood Wines and Spirits - how have firms managed to capitalize upon this craze, and how long will it be before the bubble bursts? Don't just take our word for how great it is! With two stars from the Great Taste Awards 2022, and a silver medal from the world's experts at Spirits Selection 2022 by Concours Mondial - the United Nations of fine spirits - along with a score of 87/100 from experts at the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC), Brightside is recognised as one of the highest quality gins in the world.

Exports in 2019 were strong but we expect that in 2020 we will see a big improvement. Our goal is to have 50% of business profitability relating to overseas. Not all the markets will grow rapidly but we are investing for the long haul and the future stakeholders in the Halewood business.” A unique spirit She does! And yes I think rightly so as well! She has been there since day one of course; we’re a true independent family business. Sue started out helping with bookkeeping because finances were absolutely not my forte! I just thought I’d make gin, and how hard could that be?! Soon enough I needed help with far more than just the books. We started to attend fairs and festivals and I needed support at those. The fact we’ve been able to open Castle Street is testament to the fact that Liverpool Gin is at the heart of the city.” ‘Still has legs’ If you are looking to experiment within gin, Whitley Neill has now become trusted as a brand to go to, to experiment with flavours. Our others include blood orange, parma violet, raspberry and quince.The original idea was to retail 200ml bottles online and use the proceeds from sales to those less in need to fund donations of sanitiser to Arrowe Park Hospital. It absolutely snowballed – we had no idea just how much the NHS was struggling. The term ‘ginaissance’ is well established in the industry, and it’s estimated that anything between 60m-70m bottles are being bought per year. A Merseyside distilling giant