What did you do before taking over Haven Distillery? I have worked in Hospitality on and off since the age of 14 when I started as a pot washer in a local restaurant. When I turned 18 I worked in pubs and restaurants whilst being in college and throughout employment. I joined the NHS at 17 working in several different departments for the next 25 years before leaving and working back in Hospitality in Tanners Wine, Hereford. I took over the distillery in 2025. The previous owners started the distillery in 2016 with a vision to produce small batch artisan spirits using as many home grown herbs and sourcing local ingredients without adding any artificial flavours, sweeteners and colours. What is the meaning and story behind your brand name? Haven Distillery is named after the area of Herefordshire the previous owners lived in, and the Sly Gin name is inspired by their surname which is Fox - “As sly as a fox!”  Can you tell us more about your distillery and your still? We use a combination of vacuum distillation and pot still infusion. As we use delicate herbs and botanicals in all of our gins the vacuum distillation is a softer approach as we distill at 35 degrees and at a slow rate, thus not boiling the ingredients and allowing us to capture the full flavour of the botanicals. We distil a juniper base in our infusion still and blend post-distillation to ensure the gin does not louche from the juniper oils - we use a lot! Can you tell us more about your distillation process? All of our distillations are a 3 day process. We first macerate key botanicals for 24 hours prior to distilling, then on Day 2 we distill and blend before leaving the distillate for 12 to 14 hours to settle. On Day 3 we bring down the ABV from around 92% to 43% ABV. We use Lemon Verbena in one of our expressions of the same name and this is quite a delicate herb that can lose its flavour quickly if used in the traditional stills. As we distill at the lower temperature this captures all of the Verbena flavour compounds so that we do not need to add any lemon peel to the gin. What are your favourite ways to drink your gins? All of gins are perfect as a Gin and Tonic. For our London Dry Gin and Pink Grapefruit Gin we use high-end Indian Dry Tonic. Our Lemon Verbena Gin matches well with a Mediterranean tonic and they all suit different cocktail styles such as a Negroni for our Pink Grapefruit Gin, a Vesper Martini for our London Dry Gin, and a French 75 for our Lemon Verbena Gin.
Desert Island Gins: Which 3 gins would you take with you and why?
Wow this is tough!
To build the brand within the direct-to-customer market and to get our name out there to all parts of the UK. What's next for you and your distillery and gins - any exciting plans? We want to build the brand within the direct-to-customer market and to get our name out there to all parts of the UK. We have lots of shows booked in the year in the local area and neighbouring counties, and we are hoping to bring tasting events to life this year. I am aiming to bring out some new products in 2026 too, but I am keeping these under wraps at present!! You Might Also Like...
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