I do not visit many distilleries but over the summer did have the opportunity to view two representing the different ends of the gin making world, a global brand and an enterprising artisanal Operation.

Laverstoke Mill is now the spiritual home of the Bombay Sapphire Distillery, a former paper mill which produced banknotes for the Bank of England and other major currencies until the Portal family moved to newer and bigger premises. Planning permission was obtained in February 2012 to restore the mill and the result is a stunning mix of careful restoration and new features, whilst preserving the chalk river, the Test, whose crystal-clear waters flow through the site.

The most eye-catching feature is Thomas Heatherwick’s two glass houses which give the impression of a liquid, gin of course, being poured out. They display the plants which produce the botanicals used to make Bombay Sapphire, one containing Mediterranean plants and the other tropical, making clever use of the excess heat from the distillation process to heat the houses to the requisite temperatures.

There are two enormous stills in the India House which make around 80% of the distillery’s output, which we could only observe through the window, but we could see the two smaller stills, after complying with the company’s onerous health and safety precautions.

The site only distills the spirit, which is then transported to Glasgow to be diluted and bottled, a marked contrast to the botanical to bottle operation I visited in June, just off the A394 on the outskirts of Praa Sands. Mount Bay Distillery’s operations are run out of an outhouse, with a small still, which as I write has been upgraded to a larger one capable of doubling their production, a tank in which their latest batch of rum was nearing the end of its fermentation process, and shelves of stock, housed in their distinctive, elegant, minimalist bottles, which have all been bottled and labelled by hand. A blue bucket on the floor contained the botanicals, all layered, ready for the next production of their Ebba Cornish Dry Gin.    

There was no mistaking the passion of Lisa Anglesjo and Ben Roberts for what they are doing, making the best possible rums and gins from local produce in as sustainable a way as they can. What they lack in corporate slickness, they more than make up for in their ambitions for their products and their hard work. They have developed a growing reputation and deserve to succeed.

The market spawned by the ginaissance has space for both a global giant and an enterprising family-run regional distillery, something that we should celebrate.