Nettle & Blackberry by The Blowing Stone 70cl

The fourth release in the Ashdown Series is our Nettle and Blackberry Gin. Batch-distilled using our three-part process, we use a blend of beautifully balanced botanicals which could be found locally during the middle ages.

Using our delicious London Dry recipe as a base, our recipe includes tender young nettles, used by Anglo Saxons and Vikings as an ingredient in food dishes as well as in fabric-making. Blackberries or ‘Brymbyl’ in old English were abundant, growing wild, with brambles often used as a form of defence against invaders.

42% ABV

The Legend of The Blowing Stone
On the 8th January 871, an Anglo-Saxon army, led by King Ethelred and his younger brother, the future King Alfred the Great was about to face the Viking army…a formidable enemy, intent on establishing Danish rule over the whole of England. Having conquered every other kingdom in England, just one more separated the Vikings from total domination – The Kingdom of Wessex.

Known as ‘The Great Heathen Army,’ the Vikings had been camped at Reading. Marching west into the North Wessex Downs, they were to meet the Wessex Army close to the prehistoric Ridgeway path just outside the village of Compton.

To summon his troops into battle that morning, Alfred blew into an ancient perforated sarsen stone which delivered a loud booming sound across the downs. Known as ‘The Blowing Stone’ this marked the beginning of the Battle of Ashdown from which Alfred emerged victorious.

The Making of The Blowing Stone Gin
The Blowing Stone gins have been lovingly crafted using carefully selected botanicals. Following extensive research of the period, we have selected fruits, herbs and some more unusual ingredients which would have been growing wild or readily available at the time of King Alfred the Great’s reign.

We’ve also included some more exotic spices which would have been imported by spice merchants whose aromas would have regularly filled the royal courts. Furthermore, the honey which smooths our Blowing Stone London Dry is made locally by our own bees.

To capture and balance these flavours, we use a three-part process combining traditional batch pot distillation methods of steeping and infusion with the careful blending of a fragrant botanical tea.

We hope you feel as we do – that the end result is ‘history distilled’.

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