September was super busy with plenty of work, a couple of distillery visits, a premiere, a party and a press preview so keep reading for a peek of everything I’ve been up to, as well a few new gin alerts!

Booze News

I’ll admit I haven’t paid very close attention to the news this month but, given that far too many distilleries are closing, it has been incredibly heartening to hear that the Chase family is back in business. As you may recall, Chase was acquired by Diageo but, when Diageo decided to close the site and move production to Scotland, the distillery returned to the family alongside 500 casks of whisky. Now they have launched their first English single malt, Rosemaund Farm Whisky, with the backing of none other than film director Guy Ritchie!

New Gin Alerts

A handful of new gins have caught my eye but the only one I can be sure you’ll be able to get your hands on is Mermaid Winter Gin which features figs, cassia, orange peel and Isle of Wight honey, and is described as a velvety, spiced gin with a deep sweetness and a hint of sea air.

Further afield, Australia’s Four Pillars have released their sixth Distiller Series made in collaboration with New Zealand’s Island Gin. The two gins are both distilled with Island Gin’s signature wild Mānuka honey but, while Four Pillars were inspired by salty botanicals like Bull kelp and Old Man saltbush to create their Wild Island Gin, Island Gin took inspiration from Four Pillars’ love of citrus in their fresh and bright Orange & Mānuka Honey Gin.

Finally, Ginplz is a new Mediterranean-inspired gin made in Portugal using a rice base alongside lemon and orange peel, bitter orange, orange blossom, olive leaf, rosemary, clove and cardamom. It will officially launch in October at Bar Convent Berlin.

My Month in Gin

September was super busy with plenty of work and no shortage of fun. In addition to judging The Luxury Masters and The Spirits Business Autumn Blind Tasting 2025 and the inaugural Global Drinks Intel New Product Tasting Awards I am also delighted to have taken on some guest writing for Ambassador Cruise Line! I’ve been commissioned to write three pieces relating to their global destinations, and the first, all about the Caribbean and rum, is online now so please do check it out!

You know I can’t resist an invitation to a distillery so of course I had to attend Witchmark’s first birthday at their distillery on Wiltshire’s beautiful Fonthill Estate! In addition to plenty of cocktails, canapés, champagne and pizza, we were treated to a full tour of the site where Witchmark use locally sourced barley to make their vodka, gin and whisky from scratch. Their English Whisky won’t be ready for a couple of years but the new make spirit tastes incredibly promising, the gin is great and the vodka is phenomenal!

With Negroni Week towards the end of the month, I also had to indulge in a few servings of the classic cocktail, and was delighted to join Sara of Negroni Club UK at Bar Lina Canary Wharf to check out their offering. Inspired by Italy’s renowned bar culture, Bar Lina is low-lit and cocoon-like with a great drinks menu including not one, not two, but four delicious negronis! They also have a wonderful selection of tiny cocktails which you can enjoy for just £1 between 5 and 6pm on a weekday. I highly recommend you pop in and try the delicious chocolate orange Garibaldi!

One of the undoubted highlights of the month was attending the premiere of episode 3 of Mr Lyan’s Taste Trips at the Fords Gin Bar at Thames Distillers! Episode 3 is all filmed in London and features everything from dive bars to Desi pubs and kebab shops to world-class cocktail bars and is a brilliant watch. Of course the venue was amazing too, and we got to enjoy cocktails in the fabulous Fords Bar – including the tasty and tropical India Pale Collins which Ryan creates in this episode – as well as a peek at the frankly ludicrously small stills on which everything at Thames Distillers is made! Episode 3 is available now on YouTube and Reach TV and well worth watching. And don’t forget to keep your remote control close to hand so you can hit pause for some top tips!

I also had a wonderful evening celebrating Miranda Hayman’s impressive 20 years in the industry in the beautiful basement bar of The Orange. It was absolutely wonderful to catch up with Miranda and James as well as lots of other OG gin pals while drinking some fantastic Hayman’s cocktails. There was quite a lot of plotting going on too so hopefully some of those might come to fruition too!

And last but certainly not least, I saw out September at Whitebox‘s press preview. In addition to plenty tasty cocktails and yummy Yard Sale pizza we got a sneak peek of Whitebox’s new advent calendar (containing 24 cocktails and retailing for £99) and Christmas crackers as well as a tasting of all the new cocktails they are releasing over the next six months or so! As you’d expect the Bébé Bob Martini created with Mr Lyan is amazing, but I also absolutely loved the Mezcal Marg, Mai Tai and Manhattan so keep your eyes peeled for those!

Welcome to My Collection

I was lucky enough to receive lots of lovely goody bags from this month’s adventures including a trio of miniatures from Witchmark Distillery, a freezer Martini from Hayman’s Gin, another from Fords Gin alongside a wonderful Music to Drink Martinis To vinyl and a selection of cocktails from Whitebox including two of their Christmas Crackers! Thanks also to No. 3 for a bottle of their newly certified organic gin and to PrePear for samples of their Korean pear juice which, if drunk the night before the morning after, is said to ward off the effects of too much booze. With all this it certainly looks like I should have plenty of opportunities to put it the test!

Catching Up and Looking Forward

It might be autumn here, but it’s spring in New Zealand which goes some way to explaining why my latest column for Drinksbiz is all about ice cream! It was a big trend this summer so do have a read if you haven’t already. As for October it’s looking pretty quiet for now, but there’s at least one launch I’m looking forward to, so watch this space! 🍸🛎🛎