Bombay Sapphire - The greenhouse at the Distillery

We visited the distillery, using a voucher we had been given for a tour back in 2019!  They have only just started proper tours again and only groups of 16, no coach parties yet. Everyone had to wear a mask.

It was very interesting to hear about both the history of the mill where the distillery is now housed, and the background to the Bombay Sapphire gin and how it is made,
The Mill was originally set up to make paper and the paper for many bank notes for countries around the world were made there until the 1960’s when the manufacture was moved to Overton which is not far away. British bank notes are still made in Overton. 
The Mill was then unused until the company which owns Bombay Sapphire took it over in 2010 , renovated the buildings and adapted them to become the distillery it is today.
10 different ‘botanicals’…ie plants, are used in the production and there are examples of these in the greenhouses pictured…7 are in the temperate greenhouse( liquorice, Angelica root, coriander seed, juniper, bitter almonds, lemon peel and orris root) and 3 in the tropical hothouse( cubeb berries, grains of paradise and cassia bark).  The actual plants used in the production are sourced from many different countries around the world and arrive at the factory ready to use.

Enough gin for 100,000 bottles are made each day which adds up to about 65 million a year! Although the gin is distilled here it is then shipped to Glasgow to a bottling plant which is also used for Dewars whisky.