For anyone who has sailed along the South Devon coast, Salcombe Gin’s Start Point, the distillery’s core expression, is a pretty solid pun… it is the promontory you have to round if heading from Exmouth, Brixham or Dartmouth to Salcombe or further west. But it was also the first gin the distillery released in 2016 – start point, see what they did there?

This sort of IYKYK wink is classic “regional gin” fodder from the ginsplosion of the 2010s – using a locally foraged botanical to lure in tourists to buy it as a gift. Salcombe managed to avoid that temptation, however, looking outwards… Start Point as a waymark to the world. Start Point is a classic London dry with botanicals that will surprise nobody, but it is perfectly balanced between the earthiness of juniper and other berry and bark spices and the freshness of citrus peel – which, unusually, goes in freshly peeled, rather than dried, for an extra zing. That includes a wonderfully drying pink grapefruit (which is also the preferred garnish in a gin and tonic). A year on, it won double gold at the (genuinely prestigious) San Francisco World Spirits Awards.

Salcombe’s next gin was the least pink “pink gin” you’ll drink, Rosé Sainte Marie. Co-founder Angus Lugsdin says, ‘A load of customers were saying, can you do a pink gin, but we resisted. Partly because we thought it was a fad – we were a bit wrong about that! – but it didn’t sit well with us making something sweet. Eventually, we said, OK, but if we’re going to do it, let’s do it our way. As inspiration, we took the idea of a glass of dry Provence rosé wine on a summer’s day.’

The Pearl Cut, in all its glory

The pink hue, lent by steeping strawberries in the gin after distillation, is a mere hint and the flavour is a full day’s sailing from sugary pink gins – it has earthy, spicy depth along with a murmur of hedgerow berries.

The name Sainte Marie is from the lighthouse at the entrance to Marseille Old Port. The relevance of that is that it was a frequent stop for the fast-sailing 19th-century clipper schooners known as “Salcombe fruiters” – built at boatyards on the Salcombe-Kingsbridge Estuary – that brought fresh citrus and other fruit to Britain.

Salcombe’s most notable export these days generally makes its way around the world after a visit to duty free at Heathrow, Gatwick et al.

The Holborn Dining Room hosts exclusive tasting sessions

A series of partnerships has also spread the word – limited-edition bottlings developed with the likes of Mark Hix, Monica Galetti and Niepoort port. The latest is The Pearl Cut, created with the Gin Bar at Rosewood London’s Holborn Dining Room (in the old Pearl Assurance building). There are just 18 bottles at the bar – although, reassuringly, it does say “Batch 1” on those bottles! It differs from Start Point with the addition of some Mediterranean botanicals – olives and fresh rosemary.

At a series of events this autumn, a few extra bottles will be created in very small batches, as Angus Lugsdin demonstrates a live distillation of a bottle of Pearl Cut in a miniature copper still. As the spirit drips through the condenser, he also takes you through a tasting of Salcombe’s other gins, as well as answering your geeky distillation questions (I recommend one about London Dry vs compound vs distilled gins).

It takes place on the marble countertop of Holborn Dining Room’s The Pie Room, which is also a handy place for some light bites that wisely arrive along with the final Pearl Cut martini-mixing demo.

The Rosewood Holborn Salcombe Gin Masterclasses will take place on 30 October and 20 November between 6pm and 8pm (£125pp). Book at rosewoodhotels.com/london/salcombe-gin-masterclass; salcombegin.com