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 — 2 oz Tarquin's Cornish Pastis Gin · 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice · 0.5 oz fennel syrup (1:1 fennel tea and sugar) · 1 dash celery bitters · 2 oz chilled soda water · Combine gin, lemon juice, fennel syrup, and celery bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake briefly — just five seconds, to chill without over-diluting. Strain into a rocks glass over a single large ice cube. Top with soda water and stir once gently. Garnish with the fennel slice and lemon zest, expressing the oils over the surface. · Garnish: Thin slice of fennel bulb and a strip of lemon zest · Glass: Rocks glass
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.
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