TARQUINS GIN TOUR

A fabulous tour of this craft distillery in the heart of Cornwall.

Location – Wadebridge, Nr Padstow, Cornwall

Time 90 mins – Cost £18 pp

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Fascinating behind the scenes tour
• Friendly passionate guides
• Very generous samples
• Exclusive products to purchase 

GIN INTRO

I was introduced to Tarquins Gin by a friend who knew Tarquin, not too long after he started.  This was back when Tarquins Dry was their only product and produced in batches of 300.  Since then I have watched them grow – I currently have 8 different bottles!

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THE TOUR

We were greeted by the Brand Ambassador and tour leader, Sophie.

The 90 minutes tour starts of course with a G&T – the classic Tarquins Dry Gin, fever tree tonic and garnished with a slice of grapefruit and rosemary.   

If you are lucky, you can sip it in the sun while you wait for others to arrive like I did.   

We started the tour where it all began for Tarquins in the original industrial unit.

Sophie gave us a history lesson and we learnt about the origins of gin as well as some fun snippets of history like what Mothers Ruin and Saved by the Bell mean.   

I learnt quite a lot, especially about the Sipsmith brothers and the craft gin revolution. Most tours I have been on talk about the history of gin but not about the origins of the craft industry in the UK.  

We then moved into the distillery itself.  We couldn’t take any photos in there, partly due to privacy and of course the highly flammable liquids all around us. 

I don’t want to spoil the tour, so won’t tell you every secret, but I was surprised about how different the distillery was from how I imagined it.  The process is still very manual, and every single bottle is hand labelled, hand waxed.  It was delightful to see that the speciality gins (such as Seadog & limited editions) are still made in the original three 250 litre hand-beaten copper pot-stills.

When Tarquin puts “Handcrafted in Cornwall” on every bottle, he really does mean it.

THE TASTE

After the tour of the distillery, we returned to our benches with our sampling “surf board”.  

The wonderful, passionate Rosie – Head of Customer Experience (imagine that as a job title)  gave us a tour through the history of the range as well as how Tarquin developed his first gin – showing us quite a few prototypes!  I guess practice makes perfect. 

We then went onto the tasting of each sample, but also had a history of the development and why Tarquin made each one.   For example – Tarquins Sea Dog, was originally made especially for an RLNI event.   At 57% Tarquins Seadog Navy Gin is the strength at which gunpowder would still ignite if it was accidentally soaked in Gin during battle.   This strength was historically drunk by the Royal Navy – so this new gin was a perfect tribute. After its success, and many phone calls, Tarquins was persuaded to make it again, good job he did it won ‘Worlds Best Gin in 2017’.

The four samples were accompanied by perfect tonic matchings and were very generous samples.   Was great to try some new and different gins, and learn new pairings. They also let you try others too if you wanted to, so we tried the new rums. 

I really enjoyed our time and would definitely do again and highly recommend for value and experience.  I need to go back and purchase one of the exclusive ceramic bottles! 

and finally…my top tips

Tour Tips

1. Book well in advance, especially if you are on a holiday, as very limited timings and spaces – we booked a year in advance!  
2. Get there early, you may get lost as there are no signs so easy to miss.  Sat Nav works just follow that and when you see a windmill turn into the industrial estate.
3. Do your research, have a look at your collection, what you want to try and what you can buy elsewhere, you can get great prices on Tarquins on Amazon etc, but there are lots of exclusives to buy there, like limited bottles, so save your money for them rather than ones you can buy at home.   
4. Wax your own bottle.  For a fabulous price (£30) you can wax and take away your own Tarquins Cornish Dry, will treasure my attempt, can definitely tell its mine the stamp is on backwards!