Famed chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White visited the Welsh-based gin distillery which he’s chosen to exclusively make his brand-new London dry gin.
Master distiller Dai Wakely of Cygnet Distillery and Pierre White have been working behind the scenes for months on the development and inerrancies of creating a gin. They met to put the development plan and recipe into action to distil the first 1,000 bottles.
Called Mr White’s, London Dry Gin the renowned chef has been involved with every aspect from the recipe, bottle design and branding.
Juniper led, it includes botanicals such as hand peeled orange, lemon verbena and fresh lavender and is now available to pre-order.
Marco said: “Gin brings back nostalgic, memorable moments of my days spent in the capital working at Harveys, as I travelled over Wandsworth Bridge to work I would smell the juniper berries being distilled at Booth’s Distillery.
“I like juniper a lot, but found you’ve got to be careful with it, especially when cooking. It has an amazing smell and the verbena is also very beautiful.”
Dai said: “Marco has been part of every aspect of creating this gin from the recipe, bottle shape, branding and the perfect serve. He’s taken a huge interest right from the very beginning and his enthusiasm is tangible, so it was a real pleasure to have him here to create the very first batch of Mr. White’s Gin. It’s been honour to work with him and I’ve learnt an unbelievable amount from the master of creating simple recipes, done well.
“More than ever people are interested in the provenance and authenticity of the gin they are drinking and Mr White’s is delivers on exactly these values. Simple, well done and honest, Mr White’s supports the idea of craft and tradition but in a more modern manner.
“We’ll now look forward to the first batch being ready so gin lovers will be able to enjoy this fantastic new drink.”
Following the distillery visit, Pierre White popped over to his Steakhouse Bar & Grill restaurant which is located at J Shed, SA1 where he chatted to students from Gower Catering College and gave them some top tips on how to make it as a top chef.
David Bellis, Managing Director of Cygnet Distillery and franchisee of the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill in Swansea added: “The benefit of Marco visiting Swansea can’t be understated and it was great to see him here and helping Dai with the gin. He really got engaged with the students and was with them for about an hour and a half.
“It’s great for Cygnet Gin, great for the restaurant and great for Swansea and shows he still is regarded as being arguably the most influential chef the UK has ever seen.”
