The ginaissance shows no signs of running out of steam. The UK now produces some 500 gins and, according to the tax man – and he should know – there are now 273 distilleries producing hooch. The surge in gin production has given rise to a new term, ginterpreneur, to describe those individuals who are beavering away mixing botanicals to base spirit in the hope of finding the latest elixir to take the market by storm.

Bombay Sapphire in 1988 was the first to try to do something different with gin, bottling the spirit in a distinctive blue Bottle and making a great play in detailing the botanicals that went into the mix and their provenance. With bottles of so-called premium gin retailing at prices upwards of £30 a time, it is not unreasonable for the consumer to be told what has gone into it and where it has come from. Of course, you cannot judge the taste by the listing of the ingredients but you can get a sense of what it may be like, whether it is going to have a classic flavour, going to be spicy or have a more citrusy feel.

There is also a definite trend towards what may be termed field to bottle, where producers are sourcing ingredients from their own locality. This is a particularly so with the ever-increasing number of Scottish gins and perhaps the example par excellence is the gins coming from the Chase distillery where the base spirit is made from apples and potatoes grown in the orchards and fields at the farm.

Another classic example is our featured gin, Waddesdon Housekeeper’s Rhubarb Gin, which has only recently hit the market in September 2017 and is distilled in very small batches, the first of which was only 96 bottles. It is difficult to get hold of but Santa rather kindly delivered me a bottle to enjoy. The eponymous housekeeper was a certain Mrs Boxall who, amongst her other duties, was responsible for making liqueurs from the fruit grown on the Waddesdon estate, the weekend retreat of the Rothschild family and now bequeathed to the National Trust. One of her most successful liqueurs was Rhubarb gin and it is her recipe that the estate is following some 117 years later.

The starting point, unsurprisingly, is rhubarb grown in the house’s Eythorpe garden, which is carefully washed to remove any impurities as well as any green sinewy parts and dead flowers, and then chopped up into one-inch squares to leave mainly pink rhubarb, full of those vital Anthocyanins which give it its distinctive colouration. About 450 grams of rhubarb goes into each bottle. The rhubarb is then put into a base spirit comprising of 48% ABV London dry gin and left to macerate for around 4 to 5 weeks before the resultant liquid is blended with a sugar solution. The finished article has an ABV of 21.5% and for those who are sugar conscious contains around 130 grams of sugar per litre.

The bottle is delightfully bell-shaped with an artificial cork stopper. On removing the stopper, there is a delightful aroma of rhubarb. To the taste it is smooth and very rhubarby. I tried it neat and then with a tonic. The labelling on the bottle suggests that it is served with ginger beer – I have not tried that – or with Prosecco. It is a very refreshing drink and would go down a treat with a slug of ice on a warm summer’s evening. The bonus is that its low alcoholic content means you can sup a lot of it before it catches up on you.

It is worth seeking out.