Amazing new facility risen out of the flames a true story of Yorkshire strength
RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ✨
Highlights
- Generous samples
- State of the art gin laboratory
- Great storytelling
- Fabulous sparkling new facilities
Duration – 1 hour 30
Cost – £20
Location – Leeming Bar – North Yorkshire
Gin Intro
The start of our gin journey around the north was a stop off at this distillery just off the A1M.
I’ve followed Masons since they started in 2013 – as I lived in Bedale (where they used to be located) as a teenager. The first Yorkshire Distillery (now 62). As a proud ‘local’ I’ve always had a bottle (or two) on my gin shelf . So this visit was a bit of a trip down memory lane for me.
Masons original is what I would call a classic London Dry – a true reflection of what is good about a London Dry – crisp and clear, juniper lead with a citrus hint.
A local family run business by Carl and Kathy. Masons have had several sites around Bedale, tragically the last site brunt down – and so this new site is their brand new (beautiful) home.
The Tour 5⭐️
You arrive at a huge industrial building, which you definitely can’t miss. I’m not sure what I expected to be walking into, what a was surprised to see in the space they have created an entrance and bar area that is like a boutique hotel. From the plush velvet seating you can see-through to the distillery and the large beautiful copper stills.
A warm welcome after the necessary Covid checks – with Caroline – straight to the bar for a large double G&T. The bar area is where all the fun is – with set out sample glasses on a Gin Foundry botanical wheel.
The tour started off in the large open plan distillery where Andy talked us through the site and then through how they produce Masons. They have two stills, Tony and Anthea ( named after the owners mam and dad).
Tony is am impressive 100ltr still. I love how the heat from his busy job use has given him a beautiful multi coloured copper body.
Andy shares lots of hints of the story to come of the fire at Masons – starting with understanding why Tony and Anthea and are electric. Running 5 days a week, Tony runs every days as Masons are also contract distillers so make lots of different gins for other people as well as major supermarkets.
However as Andy explained Masons is made only in a traditional single shot method brought down to the 42% – made with Yorkshire water and absolutely no pink colouring or artificial flavours. It’s what they want to be known for – a ‘proper traditional gin’.
From there we moved into the distillers laboratory – where the head distiller Liam works creating all the different flavours in his small copper pot (hot plate – still no flames) and then works out how to scale to the production – this is where Rory comes in the research (aka mad scientist) – with his vacuum distillation – a modern and scientific method way to create flavours. The lab allows Masons to stay top of their game and build a bank of flavours for the future – new spirits coming and offer even more choice for the contract work.
The Taste 5⭐️
We returned to the bar area for sampling. Andy told us to smell the neat gin first with our mouth closed and then open. Wow a new one for me – and what a difference it makes – try it.
Our samples where:
- Tea Edition
- English Lavender
- Pear and Pink Peppercorn
- Orange & Lime Leaf
Andy took us through each sample – weaving in the story of each gin, the history of gin itself and the story of the Masons. Of course also the story of the fire, amazing story of resilience, team work and community support after the fire to get Masons back in business. I wish I had managed to get a bottle of Phoenix gin – made to give back to the firefighters.
This clever way of doing the tour and story meant less standing around and it also made the tasting not feel rushed. Love the History of gin and each time I learn something new – this time Andy explained how sailors invented the first G&T – adding Genever to make the quinine they were taking for malaria taste better, then adding limes to combat scurvy.
The samples drunk we weren’t rushed out the door, we stayed to try a few more samples so we could make our choice of what to buy. The Distillers Cut and Pink Grapefruit and cucumber were our favourites and we went for the later, it was amazing and we were so taken back by how it shouldn’t but does work – it’s so different than any of my other gins!
Tour Top Tips
- Check out your collection first so you don’t buy what you have already
- Samples are pre poured so if you are driving ask if they will do a drivers pack – it’s not offered but I am sure they will
- If you are staying locally book at taxi in advance, it’s one of the bad things about living in this area, taxis are hard to come by
Feedback
The only small negative was that Andy talks so fast – and it was hard sometimes to follow – means will have to come back again to catch what we missed – I did ask a lot of questions though!
It would be nice for people on the tour to get either exclusive products or a small discount – after all Masons are saving the postage and it would encourage to buy. I think we might have bought a few more but felt I could do at the same price at home.
Drivers packs would be good – I got my husbands samples but he could only have one.
Overall Experience a fabulous 4.5 ⭐️
Tour de Gin 