In 2014, the founders of this month’s Gin Ian McCulloch and James Shelbourne met in their local pub and discussed the idea of setting up a small, local distillery. Taking their inspiration from Scottish whisky distilleries, the two friends started out with a grand vision of making a truly sustainable distillery next to a fresh water source, producing handcrafted, artisan spirits using locally sourced ingredients. But first they needed the perfect location.

Most distilleries end up in grim locations or boring industrial estates. Where’s the fun in that? Ian and James wanted somewhere filled with history, a good story and plenty of provenance. After scouting many locations in the south of England, one day Ian happened upon Sherbourne Farm (a former cow barn and petting zoo) on the banks of the magical Silent Pool in the Surrey Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Excited by the find, Ian and James contacted the landowner, The Duke of Northumberland, and got the go ahead to restore the dilapidated farm buildings into the Silent Pool Distillery.

The friends were initially going to name the distillery ‘The Surrey Hills distillery’ to evoke their surroundings but they eventually settled on Silent Pool Distillery because of the natural waters in the Silent Pool that is adjacent to the distillery and how important they are to their gin production.

They have been innovators of new flavours since they first started distilling and since that first distillation, they have been keen to source local botanicals, from local farmers and it has paid off. There is an ownership of the brand with the local people that has really helped Silent Pool become one of the established premium brands of gin in the UK. They won a gold medal at the Spirits Business Gin Masters 2019 and it is something they credit to their whole teams’ involvement, from production to advertising.

This Citrus Gin became the third gin in the distillery’s portfolio when it launched in 2022 and now that we have finally managed to cut some of the red tape left over by Brexit, we have been able to bring it across from Surrey to Ireland for you! We are delighted to include it in this month’s Gin Box. It is part of the ‘Super Premium Category’ of gins being made in the UK and while there are many – there are few which we have had our eye on for you for quite some time! Watch this space for more!

You will notice that rare Citrus Silent Pool gin is bottled in a 50cl bottle. We have also included 2 x 5cl bottles of the inimitable classic Silent Pool Gin – so you can have a good proper taste of the two flagship gins from the distillery. This is made with 24 botanicals – How many can you name?!

Enjoy this month’s gin with some Easter snacks and have a great month.

Thanks as ever for your support and we really hope you enjoy Silent Pool as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you this month!