#allinnone

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That’s the spirit

With soaring sales, and new distilleries popping up all over the country it seems that gin is firmly back on the menu. We met up with Charlotte Rose, co-founder of the Forest Hill Gin Club, to discuss its renaissance

Words by Seamus Hasson; Photo by Lima Charlie

Gin bars, gin pop-ups, gin themed parties and gin festivals; evidence of the explosion in popularity of this juniper based spirit is everywhere. Once seen as the tipple of choice among middle-aged golf fanatics, gin has been given the artisan treatment and is now thoroughly on trend.

On the back of this surge in popularity, Charlotte Rose and her partner Simon Higgs set-up the Forest Hill Gin Club for local enthusiasts. Started just over two years ago it now has over 50 members and 300 plus gin devotees signed up to the mailing list.

“Simon co-owns the Archie Parker and we were looking for something to do (at the Archie Parker) in the evenings,” Charlotte tells me. “As we both like gin we decided to set up the club and it went from there really. We put on a cocktail night quite a few people turned up and we got them signed up to a mailing list.”

While original members can renew for £5 annually, new registrations cost £10. For that, members get a range of discounts on gin including 10% off at Two Spoons Café Bar, 10% off at Brickfields Bar, 5% off a bottle at Clapton Craft Forest Hill and 10% off  premixed gin cocktails and infusions at Bottle, Bar and Shop in Catford.

An absolute bargain for anyone partial to a cheeky G&T, the club is also an opportunity for gin lovers to learn about new flavours and varieties and to try out some of the more experimental cocktails. “We try to move the events around Forest Hill as much as possible. For example, Fatty’s Organic, the Dulwich based distillery did a tasting with us in the AllInnOne,” Charlotte explains.

“We’ve also done them at Two Spoons and held events at The Hill (Lounge Bar and Kitchen) before it closed. I try to find, hopefully a local distiller to come in and talk to us about their gin and what makes theirs different.

“Then they’ll come in and do a tasting session. So, it will be a perfect serve for their gin. What I mean by that is what they would prepare it with, what garnish they would prepare it with and what tonic they would use to bring out the key notes of the gin.

“Sometimes they will do a cocktail but it will always start with a neat tasting session.” During the two and a half years that the club has been in existence they have welcomed UK distilleries such as Pothecary from Dorset and Greenwich based Mean Gin.

They have also hosted brands from further afield including Ingenious who came all the way from Switzerland and American distillers Death’s Door. Last Christmas the club hosted an event at the AllInOne with the Boutique-y Gin Company.

“What they do (Boutique-y) is they go to different distillers and they make quite frankly bonkers concoctions under the Boutique-y umbrella,” Charlotte explains. “It allows the distillers to really play around with weird stuff without it necessarily affecting their own brand.

“They had some really really nice stuff and some downright bonkers stuff,” she laughs. Charlotte says that a lot of the boom in the industry is down to the choice that is now available to consumers. “I’ve got friends who’ve said ‘I don’t like gin’ and I’ve told them that’s because you’ve only tried Gordons and Schweppes or what Schweppes once was before they updated their range.

“There’s just so much variety. I mean there’s some horrific stuff but there are also many wonderful wonderful brands out there. There’s a huge amount of enthusiasm, there’s a huge amount of talent and because of that there are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon and producing some very good gin.

“I suppose a lot of it is for the gift market - ‘I’ve got a friend who likes gin so I’m going to buy them this Unicorn flavoured sparkly gin,’ type thing,” she explains. Much like the craft beer revolution, South London has been trailing blazes when it comes to gin’s modern revival. As well as Fatty’s Organic in Dulwich, other local distillers include Little Bird Gin in Peckham and Graveney Gin in Tooting.

There’s also Dog House Distillery in Battersea and a Jameson’s distillery in Bermondsey. Charlotte believes that gin lovers in south east London are spoilt for choice. “Locally we’ve got so many nice bars opening up. Gin & Beer in Deptford, for example have an excellent range. You’ve got Two Spoons in Honour Oak, they’ve got a really good range and Luca the guy who runs it really knows his stuff.”

As well as running events for The Forest Hill Gin Club, Charlotte and Simon are also behind the hugely successful Catford Gin Festival which is run in association with Team Catford. The second festival took place in October and has become a mecca for London gin lovers, attracting distillers from far and wide.

“We had it in the Broadway Theatre this year so it was double the size of last year’s festival. (In 2017 it was held in a disused shop in the Catford Centre) “A lot of distillers came from a fair way. We had Boatyard who came from Ireland and we had Colonsay Gin who are based in the Scottish Hebrides.”

There were also a wide range of London distilleries on display such as Twelve Keys, Sacred and Tom Cat Six – described as an ‘Old Tom’ style of gin, which was devised in SE6, especially for the Catford Gin Festival.

One of the key aspects behind gin’s ongoing resurgence is its versatility and when it comes to cocktails Charlotte has more traditional tastes. “My personal favourite is a Martini,” she tells me. “I do love a martini, but people are really into Negroni’s at the minute.

“Obviously with winter coming up everyone’s into their mulled gin.” Really? I ask, unaware that was a thing. “Oh yes,” Charlotte explains to me. “Any decent gin and apple juice works really well as a hot gin, there are loads of recipes online.”

So, with so much time spent talking about gin and organising events to do with gin, do Charlotte and Simon keep a lot of it at home? “It’s insane. There must be about 60 bottles of gin back at the house, all in various states of emptiness,” she laughs. “Actually, you’ve just reminded me, I need to get tonics before I go home.”

The next tasting session run by the Forest Hill Gin club will be on December 6. For more information email: hello@foresthillginclub.com.