Village inn offers ‘Try Ginuary’ with local distilleries line up #Blog

Briony Wilson
21st January 2020

A popular south Cheshire country inn has declared ‘Try Ginuary’ after launching a gin list entirely in support of local distilleries.

Staff at the 18^th century Carden Arms Inn in Tilston, near Malpas, have created the list with the help of 14 craft gin producers from within a 30 mile radius of the village – including, Shropshire, Liverpool, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

As well as classic gins the unique 23-strong list includes premium tipples such as award winning Henstone and Hunters and a wide variety of flavoured gins from Greenall’s, Liverpool, Tiger, Peaky Blinders, Weetwood and Staffordshire

Building the list – complete with a comprehensive distillery/ taste map – meant painstaking research of the local market by assistant manager and ‘ginthusiast’ Caitlin Harrison, in her quest to discover the right gin types to replace the previously carried national brands.

The move is part of the Carden’s dedication to a strong local supplier approach to the business, including Hereford herd beef from its own nearby Cliffe Bank Farm, along with lamb and pork, cheese, eggs, bread and vegetables all sourced within a few miles of Tilston.

Cask ales on the five hand pull bar are already largely sourced from local breweries such as Big Hand, Stonehouse, Salopian, Peerless, Coach House and Merlin in line with Camra’s ‘LocAle’ approach.

Launching the list licensee Alistair Logan said: “Many variety of gins are available today, but with a heightened awareness of product-mileage we decided to limit our gin selection to within a 30 miles radius. Outside of real ales, this is the first drinks product I’ve seen where this can be achieved and it underscores our strong commitment to using local suppliers.

“From our already existing extensive list, made up of some of the big name brands and micro distillers from all over the world, we selected the flavour profiles. Caitlin then met with local craft gin producers to sample their brands and build a list to cover the main elements.

“Our map shows the location of our local distillers but, more importantly, guides the customer from well-known gin brands from outside the map to something similar closer to home. Of course the only way to find out for sure, we believe, is with many tasting sessions during Try Ginuary.”

‘Try Ginuary’ tasting boards have been created and guided gin tasting sessions are now being planned for throughout the year. The gin list is part of the revival story of the uniquely named Grade II listed inn, which fell into deep decline before local businesswoman Didy Morgan made a major investment and relaunched the once popular village hostelry in 2016.

Much of the original pub character was preserved; beams, open fires, wood and tiled floors. With two dining rooms sympathetically furnished to match the pub’s country style, a reputation for excellent local produce focused dining was quickly established.