Chase elegant gin
More green apple than juniper, hints of a sweeter spice think vanilla.
Explosion of flavour, apple blends nicely into juniper before turning more green and herbaceous.
Long finish. You can feel the warmth of the ABV and the lingering juniper.
The home of Great British spirits is found just 4 miles outside of Hereford, West England. Chase Distillery, found within Chase Farm, produces a range of gins and vodkas that all keep to their field to bottle ethos.
Starting production with their vodka on 1st April 2008 this producer has gone from strength to strength and their portfolio now boasts 5 vodkas, 6 gins, and 2 liqueurs. But how does a farm go from agriculture to fine spirits?
The Chase family started out as potato farmers, growing potatoes for many big-name supermarkets. However, this did not give them much enjoyment. They longed for more customer interaction.
The decision was made to move into producing something of their own, crisps. Many successful years passed as the producers of Tyrell’s Crisps but they kept wondering what next for the humble potato.
It was at this point, around 2006/07, that research into potato vodka began. Looking at industry trends they could see that vodka would one day have to lead into gin production. This is where the big stumbling block arose.
At this time if you wanted to distill gin you still had to have a capacity of at least 2300L, due to the gin acts passed at the end of the 1700s.
They made the difficult decision to sell Tyrell’s crisps in order to fund the huge custom-built rectifying still, which was the largest in Europe for many years, needed to comply with the law.
Operating with sustainability in mind, everything is sourced from their farm or local trusted suppliers.
If you want to learn further about the Chase family and their spirits you can head over to our podcast page as one of our episodes we interviewed William Chase to hear his story!
Chase Elegant Gin is both elegant in taste and craft. Slightly different from Chase’s other gins in that the base isn’t made from their potato vodka.
Instead, it is made from their naked vodka, which is distilled from different varieties of organic apples from their very own orchards.
Apples are hard work to make a spirit from, they differ quite drastically in size and don’t produce a great yield of juice. Once they have their apple base spirit it is put into their bespoke copper still, Ginny, and re-distilled with a very interesting botanical mix.
Juniper, angelica root and citrus peel are among some of the common players you find here. We are also treated to hops, elderflower, rose petals and Bramley apple as well a host of secret wild botanicals from the surrounding area.
The hops are added as a nod to the distillery’s previous use as a hop kiln barn. The final number of botanicals in this gin reach the dizzy heights of 48, which coincidentally happens to be its ABV as well.
The bottle itself was designed to be tall and thin like their vodka bottles, and this helps it stand out from many of the shorter gin bottles on the back bar. The shape combined with the etchings on the orchard is more than enough to gain anyone’s attention. It’s one of our favourite bottles from them as well as their Chase Marmalade vodka.
The combination of higher ABV, intricate bottle design and the very niche glass stopper makes the Elegant the premium gin option from their portfolio.
Our Spirit score
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