If the end of the 20th century was all about vodka, then the start of the 21st has been defined by artisan gin. And if you thought gin was a fad, a mere flash in the pan, then think again: in 2017, the sales of mass-produced gin in Waitrose went up by an impressive 30 per cent, but the sales of artisan gin increased by an astonishing 167 per cent. There are more than 300 gin distilleries in Britain and, according to the Office for National Statistics, we bought 47 million bottles of gin last year. That’s over a billion quid’s worth.

While we are busy quaffing all this gin – with a curly strip of cucumber, some basil leaves or perhaps orange or grapefruit zest dropped in one of those balloon glasses – who is actually producing it? Well, the best-selling craft gin brand in both Waitrose and M&S last year was Warner Edwards. In six short years, Tina Warner-Keogh and her husband Tom Warner have become market leaders in farm-made, high-quality flavoured gins.

Gin is made from grain mixed with juniper berries and flavoured by an array of natural botanicals that might include angelica, cardamom, coriander seed, elderflower, nutmeg or rosemary. Based in a 200-year-old barn on Falls Farm in Harrington, Northamptonshire, Warner Edwards produces relatively small batches of gin using the farm’s natural spring water, grain spirit and home-grown ingredients.

Its first foray into gin making, Harrington Dry Gin, won a Gold in the International Wine and Spirits Competition last year. Subsequent gins have included Victoria’s Rhubarb Gin, Harrington Elderflower Gin and Melissa Lemon Balm Gin. Its most recent offering, Honeybee Gin, which comes in a sunflower yellow bottle, is the result of endless tasting sessions – and, best of all, has an eye on saving bees.

‘Tom and I wanted to produce a gin that said something about who we are and the values we hold,’ explains Warner-Keogh. ‘We kept coming back to bees: the fact is that, without pollinators, we’re not going to have a lot of botanicals to choose from, never mind all the other crops they pollinate. Each bottle of Honeybee comes with a packet of seeds that we hope people will sow in their garden, in a window box – anywhere that will attract bees.’

The Northamptonshire Beekeepers Association put them in touch with Jonny Easter, a beekeeper with a background in conservation. Easter is now both chief beekeeper and distillery manager at Warner Edwards and he is also working with the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley in Surrey, as they rejuvenate their national collection of heather (a percentage of sales from Honeybee Gin goes to RHS Wisley in the hope that bees will swarm to all that gorgeous heather).

Even with Easter working alongside Jeremy Stephens, head of distilling and operations, finding the right balance of botanicals for Honeybee was still a four-month process. ‘Our dry gin, our firstborn, is distilled with 11 botanicals; it’s very deep and complex,’ says Warner-Keogh. ‘But when we were working on Honeybee, we started off with 48 different botanicals from across the board – quince, lavender, rose, hibiscus – and narrowed them down to 28. We taste tested each of them, took the ones we liked most, blended them together and started the trials from that. The botanicals we settled on include grapefruit, orange and lemon peel; cinnamon and cardamom for the spice; elderflower; hibiscus.’

And, of course, some of the honey produced in Easter’s apiaries on Falls Farm. ‘Yes, a dollop of honey at the end to bring a slightly sweeter note. It’s not, however, as sweet as some people might perceive it to be; it’s still quite dry, with a backnote of sweetness.’ Warner-Keogh talks about gin as though it’s in her blood, but in fact she grew up on a potato farm in North County Dublin – her family is famous in Ireland for both producing Keogh’s crisps and launching the country’s first National Potato Day. Leaving her brothers to focus on exporting the crisps to 14 countries around the world, Warner-Keogh worked as the director of a private equity fund in Mayfair. But she grew frustrated with the fact that ‘it wasn’t my money that I was playing with and I had no way of making an impact with the funds’.

Warner Edwards had come to a crossroads: Tom Warner’s best friend and business partner had resigned and the company was at make-or-break point. Keogh, who had been marketing the gin in every free minute she had, eventually left her job and poured her savings into Warner Edwards, officially going on board as an investor and director three years ago.

What then seemed like a huge risk now looks like a smart move, assuming Warner Edwards can sustain its remarkable success. Warner-Keogh agrees. ‘I had already helped my family build their crisp brand and, at the same time, Tom and I were building the business plan for the distillery at Falls Farm. We agreed to maintain a certain lifestyle as we built the business and it has, so far, paid off.’

Both Keogh’s crisps and Warner Edwards gin share the same fundamental belief that the land will give back to you in spades if you respect it. ‘We will have our own artisan garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year to keep pushing the story of bees as pollinators. It can’t be said too often or too loudly: we need bees and they need us. The gin market is very competitive, but I honestly don’t think there’s anyone else with such an emotional, playful and passionate connection to the land.’ Warner-Keogh pauses. ‘Hopefully you can taste that passion in our gin.’

warneredwards.com