Gin distilled with racecourse turf unveiled

Surrey-based distillery The Gin Kitchen has unveiled a gin made for Lingfield Park racecourse, distilled with turf taken from the track, and which will now be given to victorious racehorse owners instead of a trophy.

The distiller, located in Dorking, has created the Lovely Lingfield Gin exclusively for the racecourse. Botanicals are sourced from Lingfield Park estate including Bramley apples, lavender, rosehip, lemon mint and even turf from the track.

The new gin will be served at bars on site while, instead of a trophy, a bottle will be given to victorious owners alongside two Lingfield Park balloon gin glasses.

Lovely Lingfield Gin is packaged in a porcelain bottle with the logo designed by Lingfield Park Resort.

Clerk of the course, George Hill, commented: “We wanted to make winning at Lingfield a bit different considering we’re one of the busiest [racecourses] in Europe”.

Co-founder of The Gin Kitchen, Kate Gregory said: “We’re thrilled with the results; we’ve never used turf before but loved the idea – we had no idea how good it would taste!”

Fellow co-founder, Helen Muncie, added: “It’s been a lovely process working with the Lingfield staff and having them choose the botanicals and come into the distillery to experiment with them”.

Founded in 2016, The Gin Kitchen now produces three gins including Gutsy Monkey Winter Gin, Dancing Dragontail Summer Gin and Blushing Monkey Pink Gin as well as an absinthe. It also produces exclusive expressions for independent wine and spirit merchant, The Vineking, as well as Fortnum and Mason and now Lingfield Park.

At the beginning of this year it ramped up production, moving from a small site in a pub outbuilding to an 80m² barn.