Craftmanship

A perfect location

WARNER’S GIN: A REVELATORY VISIT TO FALLS FARM

I love a surprise, and I certainly had one on a recent trip to Warner’s Distillery near Kettering. Having judged the gin category at major food and drink awards multiple times, I have grown to dread the afternoon session. That is the slot reserved for flavoured gin. Quite frankly, eighty per cent are atrocious monstrosities made with cheap artificial flavourings that taste foul. It is routinely the worst afternoon of my judging year. When you find a good one though, it can be absolutely delicious, as I was delighted to discover on the rolling hills of Falls Farm.

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Craftsmanship and Coopers Art of Barrels

Craftsmanship and Coopers Art of Barrels

Eight skilled men, wearing dusty dungarees, stand around the giant wooden barrel. Big enough to hold over 7,000 pints of beer, they’ve spent two months building it; selecting the Czech-grown oak, carving it into perfect curves, piecing it together stave by stave, crashing heavy hammers down on the seven-foot structure. This team of brewery coopers – the last left in Central Europe – build and maintain wooden barrels for Pilsner Urquell, the brewers of the world’s first golden lager in 1842.

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