This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to a gin making event and cocktail masterclass at New Forest based Wyrd Spirits with Jet2 Holiday’s, to celebrate their new base in Bournemouth, with flights and holiday’s from Bournemouth Airport.
I have done a workshop with Wyrd Spirits before and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so was keen to do it again. Mark, the creator of Wyrd Gin, makes each batch by hand and shares his knowledge of the origins of gin and its creation process with passion and pride, whilst you enjoy a sample of their award winning dry gin.
The name Wyrd is an Anglo Saxon term that is used to describe the deep sense of personal destiny and connectivity to all those events and experiences around us, whether through fortune, fate or chance and they used that name as it reflects their journey perfectly.
We then move on to the creation of our very own gin recipe, as Mark shares his extensive knowledge of which ingredients to use and how to put together the ideal marriage of them to make the perfect gin. You are encouraged to test your ingredients before you use them and we certainly changed our mind on a couple we were set on after smelling them first.
As you add your ingredients, you are provided with an ingredients sheet, to write down how much of each ingredient you use, so you can recreate it if you choose. I was keen to make more of a winter warmer gin this time, as my previous one was very citrus in flavouring.
Once you are happy with your ingredients choice, they are added to the copper still which contains British grain spirit, which is then heated to help infuse the flavours.
As the gin is drawn off, you are encouraged to try it a different intervals, as the different flavours appear at different times. Once it has finished, you then mix it with pure water to make it bottling strength.
Normally you would take a 70cl bottle home with you, but I partnered up with my daughter, Abbey, so Mark decanted our gin into two smaller bottles for us and we were to use the remainder for the cocktail masterclass after lunch.
Throughout the workshop you are given samples of their flavoured gin, which includes damson, rhubarb and barrel aged gin, plus a strawberry vodka and coffee spirit, so we were more than ready for our delicious lunch, which was provided by The Forest Foodie.
We were thoroughly spoilt with a selection of locally sourced ingredients for sandwiches, scotch eggs, mushroom tarts, tomato and mozzarella skewers and a lemon and blueberry loaf cake.
All washed down with a Negroni cocktail.
Once we had finished it was time for the cocktails masterclass, where were we taught how to make a poured, stirred and shaken cocktail.
The passion fruit shaken cocktail was by far my favourite, closely followed by the Tom Collins. The Negroni I found too bitter, but it also brought back fond memories of working in a bar when I was younger.
If you are looking for the perfect gift for friends and family, or looking to host a corporate event, I can highly recommend a gin distillery experience with Wyrd Spirits.
You can find out more about holidays from Bournemouth Airport with Jet2holidays by clicking the link and with 16 destinations to choose from, there is something for everyone.
Disclaimer: We were guests of Jet2 Holidays to celebrate the launch of Jet2 at Bournemouth Airport. All thoughts and opinions are our own