Of all the Gin joints....

Thrupp

May 2017

Helen has had a long held desire to visit The Feathers Gin Bar in Woodstock, famed for its record breaking selection of over 400 Gins gleaned from around the world.

Decisions decisions at The Feathers, Woodstock

Whats more Bones, one of our friends from Thrupp, also shares her interest in quality gins so a plan was hatched to pay the said hostelry (if a 4 star hotel at the gates of Blenheim Palace can be called a mere hostelry) on Wednesday evening. Close inspection of the map revealed that Thrupp is the closest point on the Oxford Canal to Woodstock, a mere three miles distant. Close, but not really close enough to walk, especially after a few gins! Happily Alex came to the rescue and offered us a taxi service there and back.

The Feathers, Woodstock

The girls made an effort on the clothes front as befits a temple to the mighty Juniper Berry, but given a sudden heatwave I simply donned a fresh polo shirt and hoped they didn't look too closely as the well worn shorts...

Woodstock - the English version

The trouble with such an extensive selection is where to start. I mean, at best we will have a couple of drinks each which will mean we cover a mere six of the beverages on offer which represents a paltry 3.5% of the range on offer. We made a tentative request for the Gin list but the bartender helpfully suggested that better results would be obtained based on his recommendation. I suspect he doubted our provenance at the outset but when we started to discard some of the more unusual gins like Blackwoods 2012 vintage and Tarquins as we were familiar with them, and then started discussing the merits of Fever Tree versus 1724 Tonic Water I think he realised we did know what we were talking about and made some really good suggestions.

Somerton Deep Lock

For my part I started with a Cotswold gin and moved on to Blackwoods 60%. Helen selected Porthe Cary then a Malawi (from Malawi!) and Bones imbibed Tarquins Sea Dog and Doctor J's (which if I remember correctly was distilled in someone's bedroom!) All were top of the line gins and again I marveled how different they can taste. As for the cost? best not ask really..... but cheaper than a meal for six (just).

Bottoms up gin lovers and here is to World Gin Day on the 10th June.