Tarquin's Cornish Pastis Gin
Tarquin's · Southwestern Distillery
Southwestern Distillery's lesser-known expression channels the raw, mineral spirit of the Cornish coast with remarkable conviction. Where many gins chase florals or tropical botanicals, this bottling digs into the earth and stone beneath, making it a natural companion to the volcanic wines and peated whiskeys in this issue's lineup. It's a gin that tastes like terroir — unapologetically austere, deeply satisfying, and built on bedrock.
Nose
Opening with crushed wet granite and chalky limestone dust, this gin immediately signals its mineral foundations. Beneath that stony backbone, green juniper needles and fresh angelica root weave through — almost like walking through a damp Cornish hedgerow after rain. There's a subtle saline quality, as if sea spray has kissed the botanicals before distillation, with trailing notes of star anise and fennel seed lending an austere, herbal purity.
Palate
The mid-palate delivers an arresting interplay of flinty minerality and resinous juniper. Cracked coriander seeds provide a warm citrus-spice hinge, while orris root adds a powdery, almost chalky dryness that amplifies the stony character. Dried angelica and a whisper of liquorice create depth without sweetness, and there is a briny, coastal undercurrent — like licking a smooth pebble plucked from a tidal pool — that connects beautifully to the issue's theme of mineral grit revealed.
Finish
Long and austere, with lingering wet-stone minerality, dried juniper bark, and a final exhale of anise-touched herbaceousness. The finish is bone-dry and persistently saline, leaving behind an impression of windswept granite cliffs.
Cocktail Suggestion
The Quarryman's Tonic — [object Object]
Food Pairing
The gin's briny minerality and herbal austerity find a perfect mirror in simply grilled fresh sardines — their oily richness cut by coarse sea salt and a squeeze of fire-blistered lemon. The coriander and juniper notes in the spirit echo the char on the fish skin, while the anise undertones complement the sardines' natural sweetness. Together, they taste like a Cornish harbor at dusk: elemental, honest, and deeply satisfying.
Tarquin Leadbetter founded his Southwestern Distillery in a farmstead overlooking the rugged North Cornish coast, where Atlantic gales carve into ancient slate and granite. Every batch is distilled in a flame-fired copper pot still named Tamara, after the mythological spirit of the River Tamar. The local terroir — maritime air laden with brine, hedgerow botanicals battered by coastal winds, water filtered through Cornish stone — infuses each bottling with an unmistakable sense of place. This expression leans into the distillery's most mineral, herbaceous instincts, stripping away sweetness to reveal the austere geological character that underpins all of Tarquin's work. It is gin as landscape portrait — a liquid rendering of Cornwall's stony, salt-lashed spine.
Be the first to comment.
Leave a comment
Tarquin's Cornish Dry Gin Navy Strength
Tarquin's
Tarquin Leadbetter built his distillery in a barn on the windswept Cornish coast, and the navy strength bottling carries that same unflinching character. The higher proof doesn't bludgeon — it reveals. Every botanical gets louder, and the structure holds beautifully in cocktails where lesser gins would disappear.
Tarquin's The Seadog Navy Strength Gin
Tarquin's
Tarquin's navy strength offering is a gin built for confrontation — proof amplifies every botanical, and the juniper refuses to yield. This is structural gin: bold, unapologetic, and perfectly suited for tonic or a navy-strength martini. The Cornish coastal provenance is felt in its briny edge and wind-whipped clarity.
Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin
Four Pillars
Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin demonstrates how a single unconventional botanical can reframe an entire spirit. The olive leaf doesn't overwhelm — it provides a savory counterweight to the bright citrus and juniper, making this gin exceptionally food-friendly. A Martini with this gin and a briny olive is a revelation.
Conniption Navy Strength Gin
Conniption
Durham Distillery's navy strength offering takes the clean, contemporary profile of the original Conniption and amplifies it to dramatic effect. The higher proof doesn't bully — it illuminates, making this an exceptional gin for cocktails that need backbone without losing botanical nuance.
St. George Dry Rye Reposado Gin
St. George Spirits
St. George's barrel-aged rye gin sits at the crossroads of whiskey and gin, using fire twice — once to dry-roast botanicals, once through barrel maturation. The result is a gin with structure and warmth that holds up beautifully in stirred cocktails where a London Dry would feel thin. A bridge bottle for whiskey lovers exploring gin.
Beefeater Burrough's Reserve Oak Rested Gin
Beefeater
Master Distiller Desmond Payne's vision of what happens when the spirit meets the cask is brought to vivid life in Burrough's Reserve Oak Rested. Rested in hand-selected Jean de Lillet oak casks — previously used to age the storied French aperitif — this gin embodies the issue's theme at its most literal: the barrel's inner skin imparts golden color, vanilla richness, and a gentle tannic framework without ever eclipsing the juniper-forward London Dry character. It occupies a fascinating middle ground between gin and aged spirit, rewarding both neat sipping and barrel-aged cocktails.