Category: Gin

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Five of the Best – Drinking Delights To Counter ‘Dry January’ 2023

‘The Steeple Times’ counters ‘Dry January’ by selecting five drinking delights that those on a variety of budgets will say cheers to in this anything but actually maudlin month

Sanctimonious sorts in Britain and beyond have been spinning the ‘virtues’ (not that we’ve noticed any) of not drinking in the first month of the year.

Dull and drippy public relations peddlers have rammed the concept of the ludicrous and completely overpriced emperor’s new clothes of drinks – ‘non-alcoholic spirits’ – down all our necks and those that dare to say they prefer ‘Dry Ginuary’ have been labelled ‘lushes’ even. We think this frankly ridiculous and today suggest a counterpoint – enjoy what you wish and enjoy it with abandon.

To counter the balderdash of the teetotalling twazzocks, here we select five things that would most definitely delight drinkers this month. We follow with a selection of the very best drinking advice and phrases.

1970s Italian drinks cabinet by Aldo Tura

£4,500 ($5,575, €5,128 or درهم20,475), Brownrigg of Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Take your home bar to a new level in 2023 with this lacquered goatskin, brass and burl bar cabinet by the firm of the much-lauded Italian craftsman Aldo Tura (1909 – 1963).

Tura’s passion for all things booze related extended to cocktail shakers, ice buckets and trays also but this incredible cabinet is talked up by ritzy antiques aficionados Brownrigg as capable of “making a statement” in any setting.

1960s Italian cocktail shaker by Aldo Tura

£515 ($638, €587 or درهم2,343), excluding shipping costs from Italy, from Pamono by Chairish

If you’re green with envy of whoever ends up buying the previously mentioned cocktail cabinet, but not quite in the four-figure price range to get it through your front door, how about a 1960s cocktail shaker by the same firm?

One is currently available online and it is described as “space age” in style. Get John Lee Hooker and T. Bone Walker’s 1962 classic on and Shake It Baby! The 10cm by 10cm by 23cm high piece in green parchment is talked-up as being in “excellent condition.”

Silicone grenade ice cube mould

£9.07 ($11.24, €10.34 or درهم41.27) for two, plus shipping costs, from Etsy.

Regular ice cube trays just don’t cut it and the ice they produce waters down beverages too quickly. Get your drinking partners into military shape with the grenade ice cubes these silicone moulds produce – they’ll go down better than a bomb!

Junimperium Estonian gin

£41.24 ($51.09, €46.99 or درهم187.64), excluding delivery costs, from Master of Malt for a 70cl 45% ABV bottle of blended dry gin.

Are you bored of Bombay and Beefeater? If so, spice up your home bar with some unusual gins that’ll have your guests bursting out with delight this January? Junimperium’s multi-award winning, blended dry gins are made from Estonian berries but balanced with a peppery and rich finish. You most certainly won’t find them in Tesco or J. D. Wetherspoons.

Aside from a 45% ABV blended dry gin, see off those winter blues by the fireside with a special spicy ‘Winter Edition’ – which features warming cardamom notes and an “unfiltered lingonberry infusion.”

First edition of the 1930 ‘The Savoy Cocktail Book’ by Harry Craddock along with the author’s swordstick

£6,950 ($8,611, €7,920 or درهم31,622) from Rooke Books of Bath.

Harry Craddock (1876 – 1963) was undoubtedly the best barman of the 20^th century – if not ever. A United States citizen from 1897, though born in Stroud Gloucestershire, Craddock moved back to the UK in 1926 because of his dislike of prohibition. As head bartender at the American Bar at The Savoy, here was a cocktail shaker who became the genius creator of over 240 cocktails, but sadly someone who was ultimately buried in a pauper’s grave.

His classics numbered the Old Fashioned, the Corpse Reviver and the White Lady and his cocktail book has been termed a “wonderful work” and “beyond iconic.” The first edition offered is unique in that it comes with not only an inscription of “Here’s How, Harry Craddock” to Collis-Phillips Halpin but also the author’s swordstick.

Of the accompaniment, Rooke Books observe:

“[The swordstick] is in a damaged condition and is lacking the end of the stick. Plastow stated that the damage occurred when an inebriated patron was abusive to other customers of the American Bar where Collis worked. The patron refused to leave a party of ladies alone and therefore Craddock attended the scene, hitting the man so hard across the shoulder that the stick broke. ‘The American Cocktail Bar erupted in cheers.’ … Owing to the accompanying swordstick, we would only be able to ship this book within the UK.”

For those without the four-figure budget for this bit of boozing history, a “value edition” of the book can be purchased on Amazon in paperback form for just £10.50.

Great Drinking Phrases

“If you can’t have one at eleven, have eleven at one.”

“Down the hatch, round the gums, look out Tommy, here it comes.”

“Time is only for the middle classes.”

“It must be 6pm somewhere in the world.”

“They say: ‘No wine before nine,’ but they don’t specify am or pm.”

“Any day, anytime, anywhere.”

Wise Drinking Advice

“If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ presenter Anita Rani on home-schooling parents during the January 2021 lockdown.

“[Alcohol is] the only drug you do not have to apologise for taking… [I] associate drinking with friendship and good times… The advice to ‘drink responsibly’ is the world’s most boring phrase.”

BBC presenter Adrian Chiles on drinking during lockdowns.

“Every Friday in lockdown, my neighbour has left a delicious gin and tonic at my front door. Beats tinned tomatoes hands down.”

Madeline Glancy of Prestwich, Lancashire in a letter to ‘The Telegraph’ in May 2020.

Wise Words About Gin

“Let the evening beGIN!”

Anon.

“I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake, give me a gin and tonic.”

The well-known gin lover and husband of Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher.

“Life is too short for single gins.”

Anon.

“Red meat and gin.”

America’s answer to Keith Floyd, Julia Child, on the reason for her longevity.

“I love water, especially when it’s frozen and surrounded by gin.”

Anon.

“Myself, I’m a fan of the gin without the tonic. Why on God’s great earth would you want to water down such masterpiece?”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ ‘The Stray Cat.’

“I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”

American actor and comedian W. C. Fields.

“Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater [vice].”

Charles Dickens, ‘Sketches’ (1836).

“When life gives you juniper, make gin!”

Holistic health author Laurie Buchanan.

“Don’t cry over spilt milk, it could’ve been gin.”

Anon.

Night school tutor: “Write a horror story in six words.” Student: “I-have-run-out-of-gin.”

Anon.

“A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

Noël Coward.

“The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived.”

American historian Bernard DeVoto.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.”

Winston Churchill.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Humphrey Bogart as Rick in ‘Casablanca’ (1942).

“Gym? I thought you said: ‘Gin.’”

Anon.

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.”

Comedian Phyllis Diller.

“Stop saying I’m hard to buy for… You know where the gin aisle is.”

Anon.

“Gin drinkers are sassy, classy and just a little smart assy.”

Anon.

“You’d learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.”

American radio personality Garrison Keillor.

“Fortunately, there is gin, the sole glimmer in this darkness. Do you feel the golden, copper-coloured light it kindles in you? I like walking through the city of an evening in the warmth of gin.”

French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus.

“I tried to say no to gin… But it’s 40% stronger than me”

Anon.

“I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.”

Dr. Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H.

“Things, since you left, have not gone well with me: they have taken me from a place where there was gin to a place where there is no gin.”

British barrister and detective story author Sarah Cockburn (pseudonym Sarah Caudwell).

“According to chemists, gin IS a solution.”

Anon.

“Gin is not A solution. It is always THE solution.”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ Shaun Keaveny.

“Gin and drugs, dear lady, gin and drugs.”

The reply of T. S. Eliot when asked about inspiration.

“It’s always gin o’clock.”

Anon.

January 22, 2023
James Martin Motors Into Gin – TV Chef’s 44% Silky Smooth Spirit

Matthew Steeples samples petrolhead and television chef James Martin’s London Dry Gin and finds tradition with a twist dominates in his punchy 44% ABV tipple

In recent months, I’ve reviewed new gins from historic landed estates such as Goodwood and ones from recently created small-scale distilleries and vineyards such as Terlingham and Bone Idyll. In a once staid sector that now surprisingly keeps growing and growing, there is clearly room for all sorts of varietals, so my next sampling had to be from a favourite television personality of mine, the cheery chappy and North Yorkshire born chef James Martin.

50-year-old Martin – who anchored BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen for ten years from 2006 to 2016 and whom now has an equally popular ITV1 series, James Martin’s Saturday Morning – is a farmer’s son and trained as a chef at the Hostellerie De Plaisance, Saint-Émilion in France.

He went on to appear on television shows from 1996 onwards and won a Michelin star at a restaurant he opened at The Talbot Hotel in Malton, North Yorkshire in 2012. Subsequently came a range of premium wines produced in in the village of Névian near Narbonne in the Corbières region of France in 2021 and then also a gin.

Described as a “rich flavoured gin” and a “truly proper gin” in marketing material, the chef’s eponymous spirit is made in Holland with grain spirit and, as it should be, the dominant botanical is most definitely juniper.

Featuring a total of eleven botanicals, the 44% ABV offering has notes of coriander, angelica and orris, but it is the ginger, lemongrass and limoncello lemon zest that gives it a taste that will appeal to both the traditional ‘Gin & Jag’ set as much as this renowned petrolhead’s much younger ‘Insta Influencer’ fans.

Of his gin, in a video introduction at the time of launch, Martin suggested:

“I worked on it for about a year… I’ve blended a whole range of different botanicals, eleven different botanicals in this gin and I’m really proud of it.”

“It’s just won its first award in Vegas [in 2021]. We sent a bottle out there not knowing what we were going to get and it came back with a gold award… As it says on the bottle, it’s my own gin, try it.”

To purchase a 50cl bottle of James Martin’s London Dry Gin for £39.95 (tax and shipping included), click here. Follow on Twitter at @jamesmartinsgin.

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

Botanicals featured in this handmade small batch, 44% ABV spirit include organic juniper, coriander, angelica, orris, as well as Valencia orange peel and limoncello lemon zest. Ginger, pine, lemongrass and a “few secret ingredients” are also included. It is lauded as a “silky smooth, flavor rich gin.”

The television chef has joined many other personalities who have ventured into the booze business. George Clooney has made more money from his tequila, Casamigos, than he has in acting (the brand was sold to Diageo for US$1 billion), and Robert De Niro has indulged in vodka making in a partnership that created Vdka 6100.

As obsessed with cars as he is with food, James Martin has a £5 million collection of motors that, when featured in an article in ‘The Sun’ last June, included an Audi RS e-tron GT, a Bentley Continental, an all-wheel-drive John Deere Gator, a Ferrari 275 GTB, a Ferrari 288 GTO, a Ford Escort MK1 rally car , a Ford GT40, a classic Land Rover Range Rover, a Mercedes-Benz R127 SL, two Mini Cooper S rally cars, a Shelby Mustang 350 and two Subaru Impreza rally cars.

The chef currently presents ‘James Martin’s Saturday Morning’ weekly on ITV1.

His gin, James Martin’s London Dry Gin, features in a 11:10-minute video review that was shared on YouTube last year by the popular vloggers ‘The Ginfluencers UK.’ The pair describe the gin as “herby” and “a savoury gin” that is “fresh and warming.” They suggest “it would be amazing with food” and “having enough power to cut through a lot of food flavours.”

January 8, 2023
Brilliantly Bonkers Bone Idyll Gin – Old Masters With A Modern Twist
Matthew Steeples samples Bone Idyll gin and finds the concept of this “community funded” south-west London distillery brilliantly bonkers; here are “period fantasy” gins made with passion and panache

Alex and Sam Berry, the couple behind Bone Idyll, produce small batch spirits – including not only gin but also vodka, rum and bottled cocktails – at a distillery that also doubles as a bar and ‘gin school’ at Kingston on the River Thames.

The Berrys started this particular business after persuading 50 locals to invest after their restaurants and bars were forced to close during the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns. They raised £500,000 in investment in just three weeks from their local community in spite of seeking just £300,000; clear indication that many believe there to be not only drinking potential but also profit potential in their spirits.

Seizing upon the stratospheric growth in the gin market in recent years very much like the previously featured in The Steeple Times Terlingham and Goodwood gins, the bartender-turned-business-people Berrys clearly understood that the public want gin that actually tastes like gin. They have also captured that the ever more sophisticated yet ever more price cautious British consumer will now also only pay premium prices for products with personality and panache.

Speaking to TechRound in August about the spirits brand she and her husband developed with “character and hustle,” Alex Berry observed:

“We only opened in June, but Bone Idyll is very much based on what we’ve seen happen in the industry in recent times. We felt some parts of the industry were getting a bit stale and it was time for something different, something fun.”

“Similarly, customers have enjoyed the gin boom but now they’re now looking for the next big thing. Our products may be traditionally produced but in every one we’ve injected some personality, from a tweak to the taste to the vintage characters on our bottles.”

Bone Idyll’s stable of three gins numbers a 40% ABV London Dry, a 40% ‘blushing’ pink gin and a 45% ABV gin aged for three months in whisky barrels. Their packaging, which has been described by Sam Berry as “period fantasy drama but done in a modern way,” is certainly stand-out, yet the gins themselves will appeal as much to gin purists as those seeking something a bit more renegade.

Having not sampled the distillery’s London Dry, I cannot comment on that particular offering, but I can say that the pink peppercorn and raspberry found in Bone Idyll’s ‘Blushing Pink’ most definitely will make it to the liking of those who normally add Angostura Bitters to their gin. It’d most likely, therefore, please the late Queen Mother, though the lady featured on the bottle is without doubt a bit more Lady Gaga in her get-up.

Turning to the barrel-aged, here is a spirit that is woody and smoky and thus would appeal to the Hunter S. Thompson school of drinker. If you are perhaps looking to find an alternative to the overly-hyped whisky based Old Fashioned, this could be your next tipple. Here is an ‘Old Master,’ but with a ring in the nose and a punchy kick to the taste.

The Bone Idyll Distillery & Bar is located at Water Lane, Kingston, KT1 1AE.

To purchase bottles, click here:
- 70cl bottle, London Bone Dry Gin (40% ABV) – £32.
- 70cl bottle, Blushing Pink Gin (40% ABV) – £35.
- 70cl bottle Barrel-Aged Gin (45% ABV) – £40.
To learn more and to book to attend the Bone Idyll ‘gin school’ – held generally on Fridays and Saturdays at 3pm – at a cost of £125 per person, click here. The price includes a 2.5-hour gin making session, 3 double gin and tonics, gin tasters, bar snacks and a 70cl bottle of your own gin to takeaway.

Alex and Sam Berry – the creative couple behind three gins that merge “vintage characters” with a bit of fun, but not at the cost of alienating traditional gin purists.

Mr and Mrs Berry and their team all embrace a spirit that they term: “Impatience is a virtue.”

The bar and distillery where the gins are made and the gin school is held is described as having the feel of being “like a kitchen at a house party, somewhere communal to meet new people.”

If you’re looking to gift someone with enthusiasm for booze in general and gin in particular an experience this Christmas, a booking of a place at Bone Idyll’s ‘gin school’ in Water Lane, Kingston could be your solution.

Bone Idyll’s gins – unlike some of those that veer towards being actually flavoured vodkas – take juniper, the spirit’s key botanical, as their clear base.

Here are gins that will get noticed in any spirits cabinet.
December 11, 2022
Terrific Terlingham – Superb Gin Made With Bacchus Wine On Kentish Vineyard

Matthew Steeples samples Terlingham Vineyard’s Bacchus Dry Gin; it’s made with the last of this Kentish winery’s 2020 Bacchus wine yet still is clearly a classic, dry gin

To the Romans, Bacchus – known by the Greeks as Dionysus – was the god of wine and intoxication, but now most appealingly for those that like to imbibe in more spiritual pleasures, a Kentish vineyard at Hawkinge, near Folkestone has crafted a gin using its very own Bacchus wine.

“Confounding most predictions,” there has been a stratospheric growth in the gin sector with 124 new distilleries registered in the UK and sales with volumes approaching 1 billion litres per annum worldwide in 2020 to 2021 alone. Those making this clear alcoholic beverage have thus had to get more innovative in their creations in order to attract attention and sales and ‘experimental’ offerings have come to dominant a seemingly overcrowded marketplace.

Whilst ‘Lobstar’ – a cringeworthily captioned “maritime gin” I once tried made with macerated lobster left me thinking it “anything but a catch” and wanting to simply “claw back to something traditional” – a much more appealing example comes in the form of Terlingham Vineyard’s small batch dry gin. It is limit to a production of just 1,300 bottles and though unusual still has that dominant taste of the key ingredient that makes a gin a gin, juniper.

Made with what they term a “magic ingredient” of the last of their 2020 Bacchus wine and in partnership with south west London based Rebel Distillers, this 40% ABV gin has notes of elderflower and gooseberry from the wine and a mix of orange peel, honey, nettles and rhubarb as botanicals. The resulting creation has a smooth and sophisticated palette and resultingly Forbes magazine labelled it one of the “world’s best 9 new gins” in August this year.

Of what she calls a “delicious and as kind to the earth as possible” gin that offers a “taste of the Kent coast,” Jackie Wilks, a member of the family that have owned Terlingham Vineyard since 2011, recently told Kent Live:

“We distill some of this wine into an eau de vie, and add it into the gin as one of the botanicals, it is a classic dry gin. We start with traditional juniper and add some locally found botanicals including rhubarb and nettle, collected by hand here in Folkestone… The feedback we’ve had on the gin has been it has a depth and smoothness that is unusual… And that the flavours are fascinating, and they develop with each sip.”

Terlingham Bacchus Dry Gin can be bought online for £38.50 per 70cl bottle by clicking here.

Pictured Top – Bottles of Terlingham Vinyard 2020 Saxon Shore Bacchus wine and the small batch dry gin that it also goes into making.

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

The Wilks family – Graham and Lorna and their daughters Jackie, Caroline and Ashleigh – bought their Kentish vineyard in 2011 after moving to the UK from South Africa. The vines there had been planted in 2006 and in the years since they have farmed it in a natural way without any artificial pesticides, fertilisers or herbicides. They proudly state of it: “As we learnt more, we realised we weren’t comfortable with what we were putting into the soil and its impact on the local plant and animal life. We took the leap to move to natural farming over 8 years ago… We encourage the natural wild grasses and flowers that grow amongst the vines, and we welcome the bees, butterflies and spiders that accompany them! We do everything in the vineyard ourselves, by hand, and we make our wines in a traditional, low intervention way as well. Our 2022 carbon footprint audit gave us a negative 11.9 tonne footprint, which means that we are a carbon sink for the area! The farm also has an ancient woodland running along the east boundary, which is a local sanctuary for biodiversity homing a number of rare and indigenous species. The vineyard has been in organic conversion since 2022 and will be fully certified by 2025.”

In spite of being just 15 minutes drive from the hustle and bustle of Dover and just 8 minutes drive from the Channel Tunnel, this biodiverse vineyard is in a delightful location on the Kent Downs and prides itself on its ecological viticulture.

The makers suggest that their gin is best enjoyed with a sprig of mint and a lime wedge; I enjoyed it most served as a large measure in a tumbler with just ice and tonic.

Wise Words About Gin…

“Let the evening beGIN!”

Anon.

“I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake, give me a gin and tonic.”

The well-known gin lover and husband of Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher.

“Life is too short for single gins.”

Anon.

“Red meat and gin.”

America’s answer to Keith Floyd, Julia Child, on the reason for her longevity.

“I love water, especially when it’s frozen and surrounded by gin.”

Anon.

“Myself, I’m a fan of the gin without the tonic. Why on God’s great earth would you want to water down such masterpiece?”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ ‘The Stray Cat.’

“I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”

American actor and comedian W. C. Fields.

“Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater [vice].”

Charles Dickens, ‘Sketches’ (1836).

“When life gives you juniper, make gin!”

Holistic health author Laurie Buchanan.

“Don’t cry over spilt milk, it could’ve been gin.”

Anon.

“If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ presenter Anita Rani on home-schooling parents during the January 2021 lockdown.

“Every Friday in lockdown, my neighbour has left a delicious gin and tonic at my front door. Beats tinned tomatoes hands down.”

Madeline Glancy of Prestwich, Lancashire in a letter to ‘The Telegraph’ in May 2020.

Night school tutor: “Write a horror story in six words.” Student: “I-have-run-out-of-gin.”

Anon.

“A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

Noël Coward.

“The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived.”

American historian Bernard DeVoto.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.”

Winston Churchill.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Humphrey Bogart as Rick in ‘Casablanca’ (1942).

“Gym? I thought you said: ‘Gin.’”

Anon.

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.”

Comedian Phyllis Diller.

“Stop saying I’m hard to buy for… You know where the gin aisle is.”

Anon.

“Gin drinkers are sassy, classy and just a little smart assy.”

Anon.

“You’d learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.”

American radio personality Garrison Keillor.

“Fortunately, there is gin, the sole glimmer in this darkness. Do you feel the golden, copper-coloured light it kindles in you? I like walking through the city of an evening in the warmth of gin.”

French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus.

“I tried to say no to gin… But it’s 40% stronger than me”

Anon.

“I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.”

Dr. Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H.

“Things, since you left, have not gone well with me: they have taken me from a place where there was gin to a place where there is no gin.”

British barrister and detective story author Sarah Cockburn (pseudonym Sarah Caudwell).

“According to chemists, gin IS a solution.”

Anon.

“Gin is not A solution. It is always THE solution.”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ Shaun Keaveny.

“Gin and drugs, dear lady, gin and drugs.”

The reply of T. S. Eliot when asked about inspiration.

“It’s always gin o’clock.”

Anon.

December 4, 2022
Word of the Week 2022 – ‘Quafftide’ – A Drinker’s Delight

A 16^th century word – ‘quafftide’ – announcing that “it’s time for a drink” is something that should be added to the vocabulary of every single household in the land

Though puritans and bores object to those that like a tipple, the wonderfully wise sage that is Susie Dent – AKA ‘That Woman in Dictionary Corner’ – did it again yesterday when she shared a “one-word announcement that [means] it’s time for a drink” on her Twitter account.

That word was “quafftide” and we urge you all say “cheers to that” and to add it to your daily vocabulary. After all, it’s always quafftide wherever and whenever you jolly well want it to be.

Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

The gin swigging Lillian Bellamy – the character played by the delightfully sunny Sunny Ormonde in the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama series ‘The Archers’ – brings joy wherever she goes and is a reminder than gin doesn’t actually make anyone depressed. If you want joy, pour yourself a stiff G&T and yell out: “It’s quafftide.”

Television presenter Adrian Chiles is right to have lamented the overuse of the tedious “drink responsibly” mantra forced upon us. He quite rightly responded by embracing “quafftide” and by having another measure.

Iris Apfel is 101-years-old and she hasn’t yet stopped drinking. We say: “Cheers to her and cheers to that.”

Great Drinking Phrases

“If you can’t have one at eleven, have eleven at one.”

“Down the hatch, round the gums, look out Tommy, here it comes.”

“Time is only for the middle classes.”

“It must be 6pm somewhere in the world.”

“They say: ‘No wine before nine,’ but they don’t specify am or pm.”

“Any day, anytime, anywhere.”

Wise Drinking Advice

“If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ presenter Anita Rani on home-schooling parents during the January 2021 lockdown.

“[Alcohol is] the only drug you do not have to apologise for taking… [I] associate drinking with friendship and good times… The advice to ‘drink responsibly’ is the world’s most boring phrase.”

BBC presenter Adrian Chiles on drinking during lockdowns.

“Every Friday in lockdown, my neighbour has left a delicious gin and tonic at my front door. Beats tinned tomatoes hands down.”

Madeline Glancy of Prestwich, Lancashire in a letter to ‘The Telegraph’ in May 2020.

Wise Words About Gin

“Let the evening beGIN!”

Anon.

“I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake, give me a gin and tonic.”

The well-known gin lover and husband of Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher.

“Life is too short for single gins.”

Anon.

“Red meat and gin.”

America’s answer to Keith Floyd, Julia Child, on the reason for her longevity.

“I love water, especially when it’s frozen and surrounded by gin.”

Anon.

“Myself, I’m a fan of the gin without the tonic. Why on God’s great earth would you want to water down such masterpiece?”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ ‘The Stray Cat.’

“I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”

American actor and comedian W. C. Fields.

“Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater [vice].”

Charles Dickens, ‘Sketches’ (1836).

“When life gives you juniper, make gin!”

Holistic health author Laurie Buchanan.

“Don’t cry over spilt milk, it could’ve been gin.”

Anon.

Night school tutor: “Write a horror story in six words.” Student: “I-have-run-out-of-gin.”

Anon.

“A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

Noël Coward.

“The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived.”

American historian Bernard DeVoto.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.”

Winston Churchill.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Humphrey Bogart as Rick in ‘Casablanca’ (1942).

“Gym? I thought you said: ‘Gin.’”

Anon.

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.”

Comedian Phyllis Diller.

“Stop saying I’m hard to buy for… You know where the gin aisle is.”

Anon.

“Gin drinkers are sassy, classy and just a little smart assy.”

Anon.

“You’d learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.”

American radio personality Garrison Keillor.

“Fortunately, there is gin, the sole glimmer in this darkness. Do you feel the golden, copper-coloured light it kindles in you? I like walking through the city of an evening in the warmth of gin.”

French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus.

“I tried to say no to gin… But it’s 40% stronger than me”

Anon.

“I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.”

Dr. Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H.

“Things, since you left, have not gone well with me: they have taken me from a place where there was gin to a place where there is no gin.”

British barrister and detective story author Sarah Cockburn (pseudonym Sarah Caudwell).

“According to chemists, gin IS a solution.”

Anon.

“Gin is not A solution. It is always THE solution.”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ Shaun Keaveny.

“Gin and drugs, dear lady, gin and drugs.”

The reply of T. S. Eliot when asked about inspiration.

“It’s always gin o’clock.”

Anon.

November 19, 2022
Glorious Goodwood Gin – Great New 43.6% ABV Gin

Matthew Steeples samples the Goodwood estate’s latest creation and finds Levin Down Goodwood Gin utterly glorious

Highclere Castle – better known as the location for Downton Abbey – has a gin named after it and even Windsor Great Park has one too. Getting in on the act for ‘estate’ gins, Goodwood didn’t want to miss out and recently this especially idyllic landed property recently launched its own rather punchy 43.6% ABV take on the spirit of choice of juniper loving sorts.

The Sussex estate of His Grace The Duke of Richmond DL – which is renowned for hosting duels on the Downs on its horse racing and motor racing tracks – extends to some 12,000 acres. There, aside from farming, its current custodian has been able to create a rural business that is diverse and clearly thriving.

With 75 million bottles of gin sold in the UK in 2020 – up 10 million bottles from 2019 according to the Wine and Spirt Trade Association (WSTA) – and the spirit being the most searched alcoholic beverage category on Google in 2020 also, the 11^th Duke of Richmond’s latest venture into alcoholic beverages is most definitely timely.

Featuring “locally sourced” botanicals including not only juniper, but also wild gorse, coriander and mint, here is a wheat based spirit that is smooth and sophisticated. Unlike some other gins – which in the case of say Citadelle is created by the infusion of a staggering 19 botanicals into something that is nothing other than overwhelming – though, the palette is clearly defined, understandable and dominated by citrus and spice.

Of their new “agricultural heritage” creation – which takes its name from Levin Down Hill (also known as ‘Leave-Alone-Hill’ and the location where fence jumping was first introduced into the world of fox hunting) – speaking to Drinks Retailing News in August, Goodwood’s entertaining and hospitality managing director Andrew Coggings remarked:

“This launch batch is, as much as possible, a natural product of the Goodwood Estate. Our foraged juniper and gorse flower are at the heart of our gin and bring a dimension of characterful flavour.”

Levin Down Goodwood Gin – which is presented in a snazzy decorative bottle complete with glass stopper and which is recommended best served in a “classical G&T” – can be bought online for £40 per 70cl bottle ($45.61, €45.66 or درهم167.49 per bottle) plus shipping or purchased at the estate’s home farm shop in Chichester, West Sussex.

Pictured top – Twice married, father of five Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond, 11th Duke of Lennox, 11th Duke of Aubigny, 6th Duke of Gordon DL (born 1955) pictured outside his family seat (left) with his new gin (right). Aside from having a passion for all things automotive, here is a gentleman clearly business minded given his estate also includes an airfield, a hotel, restaurants, a private members’ club, golf club and spa.

This is a spirit that incorporates botanicals including English juniper, wild gorse, coriander and mint on a West Sussex estate close to Chichester.

Motor racing is what the estate is most famous for and its Festival of Speed, Members’ and Revival meetings draw tens of thousands of visitors from across the globe. Events include a hill climb, rally and circuit racing and famous famous who’ve taken part include Rowan Atkinson (as ‘Mr Bean’), Derek Bell, Sir Jack Brabham, Martin Brundle, David Coulthard, Sir Stirling Moss and even Mrs Merton’s favourite, “the lovely” Debbie McGee.

Horse racing has been part of life on the estate since 1802 when the 3rd Duke of Richmond introduced the sport and currently 19 days of racing are hosted on the flats there each year. Notable fixtures include the Lennox Stakes, Gordon Stakes, Sussex Stakes, Richmond Stakes, Lillie Langtry Stakes and King George Stakes but ‘Glorious Goodwood’ is what it is primarily known for.

September 21, 2022
Word of the Week 2022 – Trousered

As ‘trousered’ enters the Oxford English Dictionary with a citation for Sir Billy Connolly, we share some other great booze related words and phrases

“More is more and less is a bore” is the mantra that nonagenarian Iris Apfel lives by and she’d most certainly approve of the latest word to enter the Oxford English Dictionary – “trousered.”

Coined by Sir Billy O’Connolly during a 1977 newspaper interview and no doubt to be viewed as the bigging-up the behaviour of the Antichrist by those observing the tedious #DryJanuary in 2022, this morning the MailOnline reported that the comedian first used it when he said: “After I’ve finished [on stage] I can get totally trousered along with the best of them. But I never touch the stuff before.”

Surprising himself a teetotaler since the 1980s, Sir Billy’s contribution has been entered as: “Slang (chiefly British and Irish English). Drunk, intoxicated” and of it, Kate Wild, the dictionary’s chief editor, remarked:

“The newly added sense of ‘trousered’ meaning ‘drunk’ expands what is already one of the largest categories, ‘drunk,’ which contains over 200 words: from Old English ‘fordrunken’ through to late 20th-century coinages such as ‘wazzed’ and ‘mullered.’”

Sir Billy O’Connolly might not have touched a drop since the 1980s and may well have successfully avoided the hooch whilst on night’s out, but he truly will now go down in history for getting the slang word “trousered” into the pillar of the establishment’s go-to-bible, the Oxford English Dictionary.

Iris Apfel is 100 years old and she hasn’t yet stopped drinking. We say: “Cheers to her and cheers to that.”

Great Drinking Phrases

To describe someone who has imbibed a little too much alcohol also, instead of using Sir Billy O’Connolly’s favoured description, you could remark:

“Och, aye, you’re slightly over-refreshed” (if you happen to be Scottish).

To respond to someone moaning about what time it is acceptable to have the first drink of the day:

“If you can’t have one at eleven, have eleven at one.”

“Time is only for the middle classes.”

“It must be 6pm somewhere in the world.”

“They say: ‘No wine before nine,’ but they don’t specify am or pm.”

“Any day, anytime, anywhere.”

Wise Drinking Advice During The Coronavirus Pandemic

“If you’ve had enough, pour yourself a G&T, you have my permission.”

BBC Radio 4 ‘Woman’s Hour’ presenter Anita Rani on home-schooling parents during the January 2021 lockdown.

“[Alcohol is] the only drug you do not have to apologise for taking… [I] associate drinking with friendship and good times… The advice to ‘drink responsibly’ is the world’s most boring phrase.”

BBC presenter Adrian Chiles on drinking during lockdowns.

“Every Friday in lockdown, my neighbour has left a delicious gin and tonic at my front door. Beats tinned tomatoes hands down.”

Madeline Glancy of Prestwich, Lancashire in a letter to ‘The Telegraph’ in May 2020.

“My neighbour leaves a huge gin and tonic on my garden table at 2pm each afternoon we then holler ‘cheers’ over the fence. Wonderfully welcome!”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ Jo Griffiths.

Television presenter Adrian Chiles is right to have lamented the overuse of the tedious “drink responsibly” mantra forced upon us.

The gin swigging Lillian Bellamy – the character played by the delightfully sunny Sunny Ormonde in the long-running BBC Radio 4 drama series ‘The Archers’ – brings joy wherever she goes and is a reminder than gin doesn’t actually make anyone depressed. If you want depression, just look at Boris Johnson and his rotten government; if you want joy, pour yourself a stiff G&T.

Wise Words About Gin

“Let the evening beGIN!”

Anon.

“I don’t know what reception I’m at, but for God’s sake, give me a gin and tonic.”

The well-known gin lover and husband of Margaret Thatcher, Denis Thatcher.

“Life is too short for single gins.”

Anon.

“Red meat and gin.”

America’s answer to Keith Floyd, Julia Child, on the reason for her longevity.

“I love water, especially when it’s frozen and surrounded by gin.”

Anon.

“Myself, I’m a fan of the gin without the tonic. Why on God’s great earth would you want to water down such masterpiece?”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ ‘The Stray Cat.’

“I exercise strong self-control. I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”

American actor and comedian W. C. Fields.

“Gin-drinking is a great vice in England, but wretchedness and dirt are a greater [vice].”

Charles Dickens, ‘Sketches’ (1836).

“When life gives you juniper, make gin!”

Holistic health author Laurie Buchanan.

“Don’t cry over spilt milk, it could’ve been gin.”

Anon.

Night school tutor: “Write a horror story in six words.” Student: “I-have-run-out-of-gin.”

Anon.

“A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

Noël Coward.

“The proper union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived.”

American historian Bernard DeVoto.

“The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen’s lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.”

Winston Churchill.

“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Humphrey Bogart as Rick in ‘Casablanca’ (1942).

“Gym? I thought you said: ‘Gin.’”

Anon.

“The only time I ever enjoyed ironing was the day I accidentally got gin in the steam iron.”

Comedian Phyllis Diller.

“Stop saying I’m hard to buy for… You know where the gin aisle is.”

Anon.

“Gin drinkers are sassy, classy and just a little smart assy.”

Anon.

“You’d learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.”

American radio personality Garrison Keillor.

“Fortunately, there is gin, the sole glimmer in this darkness. Do you feel the golden, copper-coloured light it kindles in you? I like walking through the city of an evening in the warmth of gin.”

French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus.

“I tried to say no to gin… But it’s 40% stronger than me”

Anon.

“I’ll stick with gin. Champagne is just ginger ale that knows somebody.”

Dr. Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H.

“Things, since you left, have not gone well with me: they have taken me from a place where there was gin to a place where there is no gin.”

British barrister and detective story author Sarah Cockburn (pseudonym Sarah Caudwell).

“According to chemists, gin IS a solution.”

Anon.

“Gin is not A solution. It is always THE solution.”

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ Shaun Keaveny.

“Gin and drugs, dear lady, gin and drugs.”

The reply of T. S. Eliot when asked about inspiration.

“It’s always gin o’clock.”

Anon.

January 6, 2022
Confidence In The City

As the City of London Corporation’s Catherine McGuinness shares confidence about office space in the city, the Bow Wine Vaults announces its terrace is reopening from 12^th April

This morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Catherine McGuinness of the City of London Corporation spoke of how planning applications for the development of new office space have surprisingly “surged in the city in 2021” in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.

Given those that have returned to their desks will be able to enjoy outdoor but not indoor dining options from 12^th April, veteran restaurateur Philip Lawless yesterday announced he would be reopening the terrace of his renowned Bow Wine Vaults from that date.

Speaking to The Steeple Times, Lawless, proprietor of this much-loved City institution since 1987, enthused:

“The public are excited to be able to finally socialise outdoors once again and we are very much looking forward to serving customers old and new in line with government measures.”

“With better weather on the way as a bonus, we have already had a phenomenal number of bookings. People do really want to be outside and I look forward to welcoming many of your readers in April and beyond.”

Bow Wine Vaults, 10 Bow Churchyard, London, EC4M 9DQ. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7248 1121. Reopens weekdays from 11am from 12^th April 2021. To make a booking email [email protected]

Philip Lawless is very much looking forward to welcoming customers to the Bow Wine Vaults from 12th April.

The Bow Wine Vaults is famed not only for its “truly blistering wine list,” but also for serving delicious traditional food and continental favourites. Its terrace will be a perfect spot to enjoy outdoor dining from 12th April.

March 30, 2021