HIGHCLERE CASTLE GIN

Drink

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE VINTAGE EGYPTOLOGISTS: JEN SCHULTEN WWW.HERCAMERAOBSCURA.COM @HERCAMERAOBSCURA

THANKS TO RENEE LEMIEUX FOR THE INTRODUCTION

What connects Her Majesty the Queen, the Earl of Carnarvon, Highclere Castle, Howard Carter, Downton Abbey and Vintage Egyptologists John and Colleen Darnell?

The answer lies in a brand-new British gin on the market by the name of Highclere Castle Gin. I joined a cross continental online cocktail party to learn more, hosted by Colleen Darnell, familiar to readers of this publication as a supremely stylish archaeologist who, with her husband John Darnell, is widely known for her extensive field work and expertise on ancient Egypt. She is also the owner of probably the finest vintage wardrobe this side of The Valley of the Kings.

Colleen introduced Adam Von Gootkin, co-founder (with Lord and Lady Carnarvon) of Highclere Castle Spirits, who gave us a potted history of the gin they launched a few months before the covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

“Lord and Lady Carnarvon have preserved more than just a castle and an estate; they’ve preserved the quintessentially English country way of life. On the inside of Highclere Castle you have this

Highclere Castle

glorious 300-room beautiful building, host to countless members of royalty, celebrities, statesmen and artists, as well as being the location for Downton Abbey.

“Outside there is a 5000-acre estate, a combination of parkland designed by Capability Brown, botanical gardens that reach behind the castle (where we secure the botanicals used to make Highclere Castle Gin) and many acres of barley and oats – the latter also used in our gin; the first gin in the world to incorporate oats. For the last 100 years, gin has been served at Highclere during dinners, cocktail parties and shooting parties.

“This magical world of the upper classes was brought to life in Downton Abbey, but behind the scenes it continues to be stewarded and protected by Lord and Lady Carnarvon today. My vision was to liquefy all of that into a gin with history, with terroir, with authenticity; a gin with a real reason to be.”

So far one could be forgiven for thinking, nice sales pitch, mister, but it’s just another gin, isn’t it, launched to shore up the finances of an aristocratic family with a massive manse to maintain? However, Highclere is more than just another gin. The flavours are so unusually fragrant and complex that it almost seems to good to smother in tonic, and can be enjoyed neat in a frozen shot glass. When you then hear about (as we will below) the way every single ingredient comes from the castle grounds, and the two years it took to develop, we seem to be much more in the arena of genuine tipple terroir, like Champagne or Islay Whisky, than a mansionfunding spin-off. Adam went on to explain how Highclere achieves its incredible breadth of flavour.

“Gin could essentially be considered flavoured vodka. You’ve got botanicals, you’ve got a neutral spirit, and somehow they’re put together. In our case

Adam Von Gootkin

it’s through a still. Highclere Castle Gin is distilled at Langley, England’s oldest copper pot distillery. Every few months we gather up the botanicals at Highclere Castle: lemons, lime flower and oranges from the Victorian-era orangery behind the castle. We pulled back the juniper, so it’s a little less piney than traditional gins, and more citrussy.

“You’ll also catch a few floral notes, because behind the orangery is the walled monk’s garden. In the 9th century, before the title of the Earl of Carnarvon was created and he was gifted this estate by the King, Highclere Castle was inhabited by the Bishop of Winchester. He planted these beautiful lavender beds that line the ancient walls, from which we source our lavender today. I love teasing my French friends by telling them that the lavender in our gin is older than any French grapevine in existence!

“We also use more traditional cassia and angelica root, and of course juniper. We know from records that juniper has grown wild at Highclere Castle since the ancient Romans occupied the area, because there’s an iron-age fort on Beacon Hill behind the castle, where the Romans kept a fortress. Records from that time show they were using juniper to cure stomach ailments (which is why genevere was created by the Dutch to begin with).

“These botanicals are shipped to Langley distillery and immersed in a neutral spirit made of English wheat. Then the stills are brought to temperature and the vapours rise, carrying with it the aromas and flavour profiles of the botanicals. When it’s condensed back into a spirit, you have Highclere Castle Gin.”

So where do the Vintage Egyptologists fit into all this, apart from being long-term chums with Von Gootkin (and one would expect them to have friends with names like that)? One of the Darnells’ most admired Egyptologists is Howard Carter, the man who discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Right by his side, when Carter first peeped into a small hole he’d made in the sealed door in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, was George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon and great-grandfather of the current Earl. The Earl asked the question, ‘What do you see?’, receiving the now-legendary reply from Carter, ‘Wonderful things!’

The excavators widened the gaps in the entrance and Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter climbed in. Everywhere ‘There was the glint of gold...’

The funding for this and other expeditions in Egypt had come from the Earl’s wife, Lady Carnarvon, born Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra

The 5th Earl of Carnavon

Wombwell, whose father Alfred de Rothschild had bestowed a £500,000 (equivalent to about $81 million today) settlement on his new son-in-law.

The Tomb itself wasn’t opened until a year later, on 16th February 1923, when Carter, accompanied by the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, opened the innermost chamber and found the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun. Only a few months later, the Earl died in a Cairo hotel, leading to endless speculation about the curse of Tutankhamun that ripples to this day. In reality, Lord Carnarvon’s body, after a car crash in 1903, was not in rude health, and his early death was attributed to a weakened immune system.

Lord Carnarvon is buried within the boundaries of the 2,000-year-old Iron Age hill fort near the estate, from which the wild juniper for Highclere Castle Gin is harvested. This provides a strong, if rather ghoulish, connection between the 5th Earl and the gin now being enjoyed in bars and restaurants all over the world. An exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts brought to England by the 5th Earl and Countess remains in the basement of Highclere Castle today, open to the public along with other parts of the building.

The current Lord Carnarvon is godson to the Queen. His father and grandfather were both racing managers for the Queen, who was given a bottle of Highclere Castle Gin and apparently loved it. Everyone knows that Her Majesty the Queen’s favourite pre-prandial tipple is gin and Dubonnet. In honour of her Jubilee year of 2022, the Jubilee Cocktail was created. n

1.5 oz Highclere Castle Gin 1.5 oz Red Dubonnet Champagne Orange Twist garnish In a mixing glass half filled with ice, combine the gin and Dubonnet. Stir until well chilled (30 seconds). Strain into a coupe glass and top with champagne. Squeeze an orange twist over the surface of the drink and place in the glass.