Go west, young man

The growing resurgence in the popularity of gin tends to be more frequently associated with trendy London cocktail bars than the picturesque Leicestershire countryside. However, on the idyllic site of Bawdon Lodge Farm, around ten miles north of the city of Leicester, 45 West Distillers are busy defying stereotypes to produce a range of traditional and experimental craft gins inspired by the local environment. 

The idea to start the distillery was born from a meeting involving two entrepreneurial businessmen, Phil Burley and Graham Veitch, and Jamie Baxter, a consultant who worked on the City of London Distillery (the first new London distillery in over 200 years). Baxter cut his teeth in the industry working for Will Chase, building the Chase Vodka Distillery, whilst Burley and Veitch were seeking to move into distilling from their business buying and selling breweries. Over several gins in the City of London distillery in Fleet Street in October 2013, the trio hatched a plan to set up their own distillery, whilst also running a business to set up others with small-scale distilleries of their own. 

“It took less than an hour for them to persuade me to set up our own distillery,” Jamie Baxter, Master Distiller at 45 West, tells me somewhat sheepishly. 

After an initial plan to base themselves in the centre of Leicester went awry, the decision was taken rent a space to set up the distillery on the Bawdon Lodge Farm, alongside other local businesses. A bespoke 450l copper still, custom made by Arnold Holstein in Germany and nicknamed ‘Messy Bessy’, was installed and preparations to begin distilling what would soon come to be known as Burleighs gin were set into motion. 

Before production could commence, however, the distillery needed a recipe.

As is the case with most small-scale gin production, 45 West’s base-spirit is not produced in-house. “The reason why craft gin production – I hate that term but it is a useful shorthand – has sprung up in the last three of four years is because if you buy in the base spirit you can get a reasonably good output from a relatively small piece of equipment,” Baxter says. The base-spirit used in Burleighs gins is a 96% English Wheat Neutral Spirit, infused with botanicals partly inspired by the local surroundings. 

“When we started the development of the products, I knew in my head what I wanted to achieve,” Baxter continues, “what I didn’t have was something to root it in Leicestershire and make it our own. 

“A friend of mine came up to visit and we went for a walk by the farm in the woods. As we were walking we saw some dandelion and burdock growing, and he said ‘look Jamie you could make a drink out of that’ and I realized of course that was exactly what I was trying to do at the time!”

“When we got back to the farm I went online and ordered some dandelion, burdock, silver birch and elderberries and started incorporating them into our recipes. The name of that wood is Burleighs wood, so that’s where the name of our gin comes from.”

On June 24th 2014, the first 600-bottle batch of Burleighs London Dry gin was distilled, using the same core eleven botanicals (juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, orris root, cardamom seeds, fresh orange peel, dandelion root, burdock root, elderberry and silver birch) that now appear in all of their range. “It’s a good honest traditional London dry gin,” Baxter says of the recipe. “90% of gin in this country is drunk as a gin & tonic so you’ve got to have a gin that works for that.”

The London Dry was swiftly followed by Export Strength and Distillers Cut editions (both 47%), which now make up Burleighs core range. Described as “the feisty one,” the Export Strength is a powerful junipery and citrus gin that makes a brilliant Martini, whilst the Distillers Cut (Baxter’s favourite) is a slightly more floral, sweet style of gin with more robust botanicals, in a throwback to the Old Tom style of gin that was popular in the late 18th and early 19th century. 

In May 2015 on a visit to Tokyo, Baxter stumbled across a condiment based on preserved cherry blossoms. Intrigued, he bought as much of it as he could find, and attempted to distill with it. The result was a more floral gin with cherry blossom, hibiscus blossom, chamomile flowers and rose petals added to the traditional 11 botanicals (with pink grapefruit used instead of orange peel). The aptly named (and coloured) Pink Edition flew off the shelves, with all 600 bottles being snapped up within four days, and is now produced three to four times a year and also exported to Japan. 

Burleigh’s range was further added to just before Christmas with the addition of a blue bottled ‘Leicester Dry’ gin. The herbal variation of a London dry was produced and distributed in Leicestershire and the surrounding areas as a thank you to those that have supported the distillery. 

Beyond the production of their gins, 45 West also run a Gin School and in 2015 opened a bar in Leicester city centre selling Burleighs gin on-site. The Gin School, which runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, sees guests take a tour to learn about the production process, before creating their own bottle of gin on one of the ten mini stills at the farm site. With over 120 botanicals to chose from, and gin & tonics consumed throughout the day, the school is hugely popular both with the public and clients interested in wanting to commission 45 West Craft Distilling Services to build their own distillery. 

“For us as a smaller craft distillery it’s a really nice way for us to engage with the consumer on a one to one basis,” Baxter says, “people really buy into it and they almost become our ambassadors; they become enthused about our gin and they recommend us to their friends.”

The pace of growth in the gin industry in the last three to four years has been, at times, frightening. In 2015 alone, 50 new distilleries opened in the UK, a rate of almost one every week. In light of this, there have been concerns that the gin bubble might be about to burst as the market reaches saturation. Baxter, however, isn’t concerned. “I just can’t see any signs of that happening at the moment,” he tells me, “if anything I think we’ll end up with a bigger number of brands but the total amount produced might stay roughly where it is, with lots and lots of very small scale local production.” He’s also unconcerned about the potential destruction of British juniper plants, labeling reports that it could impact the gin industry as “risible” due to the fact that hardly any gin uses British juniper berries. 

Do try this at home

Martinez cocktail recipe with Burleigh’s Distiller’s Cut Gin (Jamie’s favourite)

“The Martinez cocktail originated in the 1880s, and with such an old recipe there are naturally a lot of variations. Essentially while a Martini uses dry white vermouth, the Martinez uses sweet red. I like to mitigate some of the sweetness by adding a bit of Dry too.”

Burleigh’s Distiller’s Cut Gin 60ml

Antica Formula sweet vermouth 22.5ml

Noilly Prat dry vermouth 7.5ml

Luxardo maraschino cherry liqueur 7.5ml

Angostura bitters 1 dash

Add all ingredients into an ice filled, chilled mixing vessel. Stir to chill and dilute slightly. Fine strain into a coupe or Martini glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and spritz with the oils from a piece of orange zest.