Portobello Road launches asparagus gin

London-based spirits producer Portobello Road has released a limited edition expression of its small batch Director’s Cut gin distilled with British asparagus.

Credit: Daniel Lewis

Launched every year on 21 October to mark the birthday of Portobello Road Gin and it’s founder Mr Ged Feltham, each year’s Directors Cut is based on a different recipe.

The concept for this year’s asparagus expression was conceived by the four directors of Portobello Road Gin: Ged Feltham, Paul Lane, Jake Burger and Tom Coates, who wanted to produce a gin using hand-selected botanicals.

“We’ve been experimenting with the more unusual botanicals for years and have dreamed of hand-picking our own botanicals and using them to bring a special edition gin to the market”, said Lane.

“We’ve played around with the botanical of asparagus at the Ginstitute for a couple of years, where gin fans can come up with their own creation but this is the first time we’ve worked with an asparagus producer directly to select the produce and create a gin for customers.”

Lane travelled to Cambridgeshire to pick 10kg of British asparagus spears for the release, working with asparagus producer Will Aveling.

Crafted in its 30 litres still, Copernicus the Second, each batch is bottled and labeled by hand at the Ginstitute on London’s Portobello Road. Other botanicals used include Gentian root, juniper berries, cassia bark, nutmeg, lemon and orange peel.

Just 1,000 bottles of the 47% abv craft gin will be released, which are on sale now at www.portobelloroadgin.com and selected independent retailers with an RRP £39 for 70cl.

Portobello Road director Paul Lane picks asparagus for this year’s Director’s Cut gin. Credit: Daniel Lewis