Hendrick's Gin

Created in Scotland in 1999, Hendrick’s was successfully launched in the US in 2000, followed by the UK a few years later in 2003. The story goes that one summer’s afternoon a Scottish whisky distiller, David Stewart, was visiting Janet Sheed Roberts, a very special lady known to her friends as Aunty Janie who is not just the oldest woman living in Scotland (109 this year) but the granddaughter of William Grant the famous distiller. Well it turns out David was also something of a closet gin lover and while in Aunty Janie’s garden he was enjoying a cucumber sandwich washed down with a little gin sat amongst the roses (as you do). Struck by how well the flavours combined, our hero set about distilling a gin with a hint of both rose and cucumber. However, as a Scotch distiller of some repute he was loathed to associate his name with a gin, so he named his new libation for Aunty Janie’s gardener, ‘Hendrick’, the man he had been chatting to at the time of his cucumber epiphany.

While the above is true enough, the actual story behind Hendrick’s creation was more of a team effort. David, a revered whisky distiller, did indeed have the inspiration for a the flavour profile of a new gin while in Aunty Janie’s rose garden eating cucumber sandwiches, but he wasn’t heavily involved in its development. His idea was brought to life by Lesley and John Ross who are still charged with the distillation of Hendrick’s to this day. They worked with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, who helped with botanical analysis, to perfect the artisanal dual distillation method and realise David’s epiphany by balancing a traditional London dry gin with complex rose and cucumber essences. Lastly it was Janet Roberts (William Grant’s granddaughter) who came up with the Hendrick’s name, after her gardener.

It’s a great name and Hendrick’s branding is the envy of many older, more established products. It’s short, dumpy bottle, which incidentally is made out of 45% recycled glass, is reminiscent of those once found in Victorian apothecaries and with its paper label and cork stopper this packaging suggests bygone times. Hendrick’s is positioned, rather tongue-in-cheekily, as being a tad upper crust with a signature Victorian/Georgian quirkiness. Typical experiential marketing stunts and events feature croquet, Victorian outfits, waxed moustaches and gramophone record players along with those obligatory cucumber sandwiches. The strap line used in its advertising, “A Most Unusual Gin”, is often accompanied by quirky little line drawings featuring cucumbers – after all, cucumber is certainly an unusual ingredient for a gin while also making for a very recognisable garnish.

Hendrick’s does not come from a bygone-age but from a quiet corner of William Grant & Sons’ huge Girvan grain distillery in Ayrshire, Scotland. This former munitions site is also home to the impressive, state-of-the-art Ailsa Bay malt distillery. What is grandly, and maybe a little unjustly, titled ‘Hendrick’s Gin Palace’ is a much smaller affair set apart from the main buildings. Unlike the rest of the distillery Hendrick’s two stills are totally manually operated without a computer in sight, just the skill and expertise of John and Lesley.

The distillery lies just north of the pretty harbour town of Girvan, close to Turnberry Golf Course (where The Open was played in 2009). Just off-shore, the island of Ailsa Craig rises some 1,110 feet from the Firth of Clyde – its peak often topped by clouds. At only 2.5 miles around its base this is a very small island but geologically unique, being formed from very hard Ailsa granite - the favoured stone for making the curling stones used in the Winter Olympics sport.


PRODUCTION

This “Most Unusual Gin” may be flavoured with rose and cucumber, but its other eleven botanicals are more classic: juniper berries, angelica root, coriander seeds, cubeb berries, orris root, camomile flowers, caraway seeds, elderflowers, meadowsweet, lemon and orange peel. These are distilled in two different stills, a 1860s Bennett copper pot still and a 1948 John Dore Carter-Head still, both acquired by Charles Gordon at London’s Taplow auction in 1966. The process water is sourced from the Penwhapple reservoir, high in the hills beyond the distillery. This water is so pure that when used to charge the stills, it is not purified or treated, merely filtered to remove sand, plant matter and such like.

The Carter-Head was invented by the Carter-Head Brothers who were originally apprentices to Aeneas Coffey, the inventor of the continuous column still. This is basically a steam jacket heated pot still that rises into a feints chamber and then directly into a column still with copper plates layering it like floors in an office block. At the top of the column is a cooling jacket, which can be used to force reflux but with modern high quality neutral spirits this function is superfluous, so not used in Hendrick’s production. The Carter-Head still was originally designed to rectify the poor quality base spirit of yesteryear but today this extra distillation and copper contact serves to smooth and round the spirit.

From the top of the column the lyne arm directs the vapour into the botanical chamber, which contains a holed colander-like basket with a three-sectioned outside ring surrounding a central section. It is imperative that the distiller carefully packs the baskets with the biggest particles of the botanicals at the bottom, otherwise there is a risk that the vapour will push the botanicals through the holes in the base of the basket, also the way the vapour passes through these botanicals dramatically affects the extraction of essential oils and so the flavour. From the botanical chamber the now flavoured vapour passes into the condenser directly below where it is liquefied.

The Carter-Head is charged with wheat neutral alcohol hydrated to 55-60% abv using water from the Penwhapple reservoir. The foreshots (high wines/heads) which consist of the first 10 to 15 litres of the run are allowed to pass through the botanicals and serve to wash and prepare the herbs and spices for the clean vapours which quickly follow and will be used in the final gin. The heart of the run or ‘cut’ is approximately 350 litres at around 80% abv with the rest of the run, being feints (low wines/tails). This method of gin distillation is known as the ‘vapour infusion method’ and is employed by relatively few gin producers.

Conversely the Bennett still is a fairly standard steam jacket heated pot still (alembic) using the more common steeping method of gin distillation. The Bennett still is charged with wheat neutral alcohol hydrated to 55-60% abv and the botanicals, which are left to infuse in the spirit for between 24 and 36 hours before commencing distillation depending on the ambient temperature (extraction of the essential oils takes longer in cooler temperatures). It is essential to heat the still slowly to avoid burning the juniper berries and detrimentally affecting flavour.

Both stills have a maximum charge capacity of 1,000 litres but the fill is never quite the same and can be anything from 800 litres. The same botanicals are used in both stills but to slightly different proportions as the flavour extraction of the botanicals between the two stills is so different. The two resulting spirits are then blended together in roughly equal proportions (the exact blend being a closely guarded secret).

Finally, essences of Bulgarian Damascena rose petals and Dutch cucumber are added, in line with the tale of that infamous sandwich. The rose petals are pressed to release the oil, which is then dissolved with alcohol to produce the essence. Cucumbers are mashed up in water and the flavours are extracted at around zero degrees Celsius using a cold distillation process.
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