I wake up every morning thinking of gin

With a 200-year family history of distilling, Natalie Wallis can concoct a gin to suit any list of demands–even one that reflects the seaside, Japanese tourists and The Rolling Stones in one, says Rupert Ponsonby

-  Rupert Ponsonby

GIN is in my veins. I love it every bit as deeply as Madame Bollinger loved her Champagne. Her musing that “I drink Champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. Otherwise, I never touch it—unless I’m thirsty” is so true for me with gin,’ declares Natalie Wallis. ‘She, poor thing, had only three grapes on which to work her magic—I have 100 botanicals.’

Her family, the Palmers, has been making spirits in seven shiny, copper stills, in a range of different sizes, since 1820. Together with master distiller Rob Dorsett, the Palmers are responsible for some 75% of all the artisan gins in Britain, so it is unsurprising that Miss Wallis was drawn to the business. ‘I wake up every morning thinking of gin,’ she confesses. ‘I started doing so when I was 19, when I worked in our West Midlands Langley Distillery on maternity cover. Despite dreams of volcanology, I’ve been here ever since.’

'I am an alchemist, an apothecary and a surrogate mother, all combined'

The copper stills produce runs of five to 12,000 litres a time, allowing the Palmers to cope with everything from the grandest to the tiniest of orders. As well as satisfying the rediscovered British obsession with gin, the distillery caters to warmer and cooler climes. ‘Export for us is a big thing—we make the biggest-selling gin in France and the second biggest in Germany,’ Miss Wallis says. ‘We also make a gin for Iceland, which came with a brief of “Iceland in a bottle” (tasting of lava, greenery and sea); one for Italy, brimming with Amalfi lemons; and one for India (curry leaves and spice). Life is never dull.’