Our Distillery
Our artisan distillery is the beating heart of the Gin Kitchen. Set in heritage buildings in the beautiful Surrey Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty in the South East of England.
With special thanks to Visual Minds UK.
THE ESSENCE OF OUR SPIRITS
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Our iconic spirits share a truly unique style and character. Our artisans share a boldness to break conventions. Our team and our customers share a passion for fine spirits.
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Gin Kitchen gins are rich and smooth neat.
But with tonic, they shimmer as their deep vibrant palate takes centre stage.
The gin and tonic was created by the British in 19th century India. They drank tonic water to fight malaria, but didn't like its bitter taste, so added gin! Our style of gin reflects the opulence and intensity of the era; it shines through the quinine.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Precision and attention to detail are the keys to crafting fine spirits. Every one of our batches has a unique character but they must all maintain a very high consistent standard. The ingredients are measured out to the milligram; a few grains of cumin
too many in a batch of Gutsy Monkey and it will taste like a cold curry!
CRAFTSMANSHIP
We embrace traditional methods but marry them to modern technology. For instance our copper pot stills are sealed with a rye flour paste while our record keeping is cloud-based. Our co-founder Kate designed and built Bindy Bubblepop, our newest still capitalising on her postgraduate thermodynamics skills.
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Kate said: "I looked at the vapour flow characteristics inside those big elaborate copper stills and developed a more efficient and controllable way of obtaining silky smooth spirit."
MASTERY
The end result is as important as the craftsmanship needed to get there. Our quality control is dependent on the refined palate of our distillers. It takes around three months of dedicated tasting to train the palate of a new distiller. It's important to know when to make the cuts during a distillation run and this can only be done by taste. When a batch is complete the distillers conduct a complete organoleptic assessment. This means assessing the appearance, nose, sensation, taste, flavour and finish, along with a subjective opinion. This is then repeated with tonic. A batch is only released if it meets our high
standards.
INDIVIDUALITY
Every bottle is given the care and attention it deserves. From the preparation of ingredients to the slow gentle distillation. Every bottle is filled, labelled and numbered by hand in our heritage 170 year old barn.
PASSION
Everyone from our artisans to our events staff share a common bond - the passion for fabulous spirits. Love and laughter. #Do
what you love every day.
ARTISTRY
We believe that creating fabulous spirits is an art. Art underlines everything we do and we're proud to work with several talented artists. We were the first to hold in-store live bottle painting at Fortnum and Mason; customers can buy personalised commissioned bottles in store. We have held interactive installations at the Royal Academy summer parties including an
absinthe dream interpretation experience at their Surrealist Extravaganza and a multi-sensory live painting experience.
COLLABORATION & COMMUNITY
Sourcing ingredients locally isn't always possible when they're as exotic as South American tonka beans, Jamaican allspice, Iranian orange flowers or green cardamom from Guatamala. However we do love collaborating with like-minded businesses and charities closer to home. Our local quince growers, artisan chocolatiers, candle makers, florists and garnish dehydrators are all within a few miles of the distillery.
We also love developing bespoke spirits for people who share our love of fine flavours, including The Dukes Head Tadworth, Lingfield Park Racecourse, Fortnum and Mason and Painshill Park.
We support local charities where we can by giving talks and events, and tasting tickets for auctions.
Stainless steel pipework on Bindy Bubblepop, our larger still,
A Gutsy Monkey water feature outside the Calf Shed bar.
Product collection pipework on Bindy Bubblepop.
Stainless steel pipework on Bindy Bubblepop, our larger still,
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
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In January 2016, Kate was on her way to a meeting in Paris and heard an article on the radio all about distilleries. She instantly knew that she would start a distillery and immediately phoned her best friend. "Helen, Helen, we're going to start a distillery!" she exclaimed. Helen replied "What are you talking about, I'm in a meeting right now?" To which Kate responded "Your meeting isn't important any more, we're going to make gin from now on." The bemused Helen hung up and Kate started researching distillation from the departure lounge. Helen called back. "Kate, we're going to make gin and it's going to taste awesome! How do we make gin?" Kate answered "I don't know but give me another 20 minutes..." The rest is history.
Our plan was simple, to create the finest gin on the planet, an ultra premium gin; an opulent and triumphant spirit crafted by artisans. We decided to create spirits with powerful and vibrant ingredients and to develop techniques to maintain their freshness.
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After launching Gutsy Monkey Winter Gin in November 2016, initially only locally to Dorking, we were approached by retailers in neighbouring towns, and then further afield until within a few months our spirits were making waves from Merseyside to Cornwall, purely by word of mouth.
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In 2017 Dancing Dragontail Summer Gin was launched at Fortnum and Mason's Piccadilly store and it was such a success they sold out twice during the first month of sale. Eternal Absinthe was also launched in 2017, using rose petals to give it a delicate floral finish and rose gold appearance instead of the bitter green judder normally associated with the traditional spirit.
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Our success continued in 2018 with the launch of the colour-changing Blushing Monkey Pink Gin. A pink gin that is sweet but not too sweet.
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In 2019 our distillery was awarded three silver medals at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition for each of our gins. Later that year, our head distiller Reeba, created The Ginger Cat gin using tonka beans, orange flower, zest and a little ginger.
Meet the fabulous team that has made this all possible.