Cheshire might be famous for its cheese, a grinning cat and being one of the cradles of the industrial revolution … but more importantly it is home to a lot of gin.
As I wrote in my book GINS of the NORTH WEST, a Cheshire market town is home to the oldest gin in the UK. It was in Warrington in 1761 that Thomas Dakin bought a small parcel of land on Bridge Street and built a distillery. He pioneered the London Dry method for making gin and when the Greenall family took over his distillery and brewery, the Greenall name was applied to his gin recipe. This makes Greenall’s Gin – now part of G&J Distillers’ portfolio – the oldest gin in the UK. Today more than 60 million bottles of gin are made a year by G&J Distillers in Warrington
More recently, the Forest Distillery was one of the North West’s earliest modern craft distilleries, opening in December 2014. More distilleries followed with profiles of these distilleries, makers and gins included in my book:
Cheshire Distillery, the Edge Distillery, Forest Distillery, G&J Distillers (Greenall’s, Bloom, Opihr), Emerald Gin, Hatters Gin, Stockport Gin, Tappers,Three Wrens Gin, Tarsier Spirit, Weetwood Distillery, Handmade Gin Company, Big Bang Botanics, Kingdom’s Gins, Aqua Sativa, Cheshire Botanicals, Hunters Cheshire Gin, Camino Gin
On 30 March, as Cheshire celebrates the day when the county was given its Charter of Liberties in 1300 by King Edward I, we should raise a Cheshire G&T… cheers!
My book GINS of the NORTH WEST tells the stories of Cheshire’s gins and their makers … so you can pick the gin which suits your toast to Cheshire!
Available from Great Northern Books here
The GIN CLAN 