Marylebone Gin, 70 cl

Product Information

We started working with Turkish quince as a flavour profile, we thought it gave a nice stone fruity flavour and it fitted really nicely with the family history. It’s currently being distilled at Thames Distillery while we’ve been getting the still into place in the hotel. Nose: Lots of pine, oily citrus and a herbal twinge of coriander root lead with help from deep, concentrated notes of juniper. But the Marylebone Hotel has given Pleasure Gardens Distilling company a home, in what is probably London’s most centrally located distillery. using a combination of botanicals including juniper, lime flower, lemon balm, clove, liquorice, chamomile and grapefruit.

So how could Johnny Neill translate the spectacular atmosphere of a bygone London into a tipple worthy of a modern-day gin lover? Casting about for ideas of how to do so, Johnny came back to the idea of the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens. Palate: Rolled oats, hazelnut spread, floral honey and chocolate bourbon biscuits initially with grassy malt, lime peel and drying spice. Nose: Floral citrus blossom and aromatic chamomile, with underlying (somewhat festive) hints of clove and orange.But most importantly I want to create high-quality, bespoke products that people really enjoy drinking! JN: I always wanted to create a gin that would hark back to something much more traditional which could offer a contrast to the contemporary Whitley Neill.

In this Georgian era, gin was very much the drink of choice for Londoners – albeit, the spirit was a bit rougher than what we drink today,” he says. He was in the Engineers in the army and had spent time in Palestine and Turkey, at the end of the Second World War and whenever we used to go to his for Christmas he always used to have quince jelly or quince jam. He says, “The pleasure gardens gave me the inspiration to explore botanicals that are a little more floral in their outlook – chamomile, lemon balm and lime flower, with a hint of grapefruit to deliver a lovely, fresh, citrus-y zing.

The versatile establishment welcomes patrons with a relaxed atmosphere and stylish surroundings that lend themselves to after-work drinks and dinner dates.