And we can't get enough of it.
James Sherwin of award winning Wild Shropshire Restaurant, Tern Hill, and the award winning ‘Shropshire Distillery’ in Ellesmere, have formed a new collaborative venture to innovate and produce North Shropshire’s first foraged Gins.
Together, they will work to produce a series of copper distilled, foraged artisan gins, distilled with locally found botanical ingredients, sourced within North Shropshire.
The Gins, which will be limited editions, will be available seasonally at Wild Shropshire Restaurant as well as selected outlets, festivals and events in Shropshire. The collaboration is a cross-industry innovation to help develop better products exploiting both businesses expertise and experience in their fields, and bringing creative, sustainable and exciting new products to the Shropshire market place.
The first Gin to launch in the foraged series of Shire Gins will be ‘Pineapple Weed Gin’. Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as Pineapple Weed, is a plant which has daisy like flowers but without white petals and a feathery, chamomile like appearance, smelling distinctively of pineapple. The plant is found all over North Shropshire and grows as a common herb of fields, gardens and roadsides.
The plant which has been chosen by James for its floral, sweet and summer scent as well as proliferation, will be distilled in the traditional copper still - named Jean - to produce a smooth, premium, limited edition foraged Gin to be enjoyed with a premium tonic and Pineapple Weed flower garnish and paired with ingredients such as sorrel, meadowsweet and woodruff.
Other editions in the foraged series of Shire Gins will be available in due course and will include unusual, forgotten and unexpected ingredients, readily found in the North Shropshire countryside - some of which may surprise, shock and delight!
Commenting on the collaboration, founder, owner and Chef at Wild Shropshire,
James Sherwin, said:
‘’At Wild Shropshire restaurant, we love to surprise our customers with new and interesting flavours found in North Shropshire. Being part of this new and exciting collaboration enables us to achieve this through drink as well as food, something we are very happy about. Our ethos of being a terroir led, sustainable, seasonal food business whilst also supporting other artisan producers, is at the centre of our business model. Being able to collaborate on developing new products with authentic North Shropshire flavours - which we can then serve to our customers - is amazing! The Shropshire Distillery produce incredibly smooth and expertly made gins and I am delighted to be collaborating with them on this exciting and innovate and environmentally sustainable project. I look forward to a continued relationship over the next year.’’
Emma Glynn of the Shropshire Distillery said: ‘
’We were looking to develop some new premium gin flavours and products to add to our collection, however, with business booming, we were struggling to find the time to undertake the research and development needed to push this forward. This is where James came in. We knew James was an expert on terroir – or flavours of the North Shropshire countryside - and therefore collaborating with him seemed like an investment worth making. We are delighted to be working closely with James who is extremely knowledgeable about local plants, herbs & botanicals & we can’t wait to test the new series of foraged Shire gins with our Shropshire fan base!
Pineapple Weed Gin will be available to buy by the glass at Wild Shropshire Restaurant from August 2019 and also with the Shropshire Distillery at the following festivals and events over the next few weeks: The Oswestry Show, Minsterley Show, Sweeny Hall Gin Festival Shrewsbury, Whitchurch and Ludlow Farmers Markets.
The Pineapple Weed Gin will retail at £36.50 for a 70cl bottle.
