When The Lakes Distillery first released their Classic Gin, it was wonderful and quickly became a bestseller. Over the years they've refined it, redesigned it and polished it, stripping away anything superfluous, much like you would with a sports car or a racing bike. The result is this sleek new iteration of The Lakes Gin and it's nothing short of astonishing. Perfectly demonstrated when it was awarded a Gold Medal by the World Gin Awards 2019, who concluded their tasting note simply:"Love the complexity on this… Good stuff."This stylish bottle deserves its place in any collection. The exceptional liquid within has been created using pure water from the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is the Lake District National Park and nine carefully chosen botanicals: juniper, coriander (which adds incredible lime notes), cassia (a type of cinnamon), liquorice, bitter orange, sweet orange, lemon and the two binding ingredients angelica and orris root. The botanicals are steeped overnight like a loose-leaf tea trapping all the aromatic essential oils. It's then run incredibly slowly through a handmade copper pot still to extract the maximum flavour. The gin that comes off the still is punchy and peppery, with notes of zesty orange, white peach, wildflowers, honeysuckle, tree bark and morning dew on the herb patch. The Lakes Gin makes a perfect gin and tonic, especially if garnished with a few cracked black peppercorns and a slice of orange or grapefruit. Amidst the tranquil beauty of Cumbria's rolling greenery, dramatic fells and sparkling water resides an old Victorian cattle farm that has been converted into a world-class spirits producer. Located on the shore of Bassenthwaite Lake - the only official lake in the Lake District National Park because the others are technically meres or waters) - The Lakes Distillery has been highlighted as one of the top five new distilleries in the world by Time Out USA and one of the"eight distilleries to visit before you die"by World Whisky Day. The quality emanating from this high tech, state of the art distillery should come as no surprise because one of the founders also set up Isle of Arran Distillers, the head spirit maker Dhavall Gandhi cut his teeth at Macallan, and everybody who works in the distillery has a technical degree in distilling. Spirit lovers need to keep a careful eye on The Lakes Distillery because it's on course to become an ultimate and highly collectable luxury global brand.£5 per 100.00ml