Spirits are high at Castle Howard as the historic Yorkshire estate launches a new premium quality gin in partnership with local business Sloemotion Distillery. Inspired by both the 8000acre estate and the ethos of the distillery, the Castle Howard Gin uses ingredients foraged from across the estate.

The Castle Howard Gin is a classic juniper led, dry spirit with aromatic extracts of coriander, cardamom, orange peel and St. John’s Wort and further enhanced by tinctures of floral notes from Meadowsweet and sweet sour elements from Crab apple, both foraged from across the estate. Finally, the dry gin finish is accompanied by citrus notes from Lemon Balm, harvested from the formal gardens.

"The ethos and values that inspired Sloemotion struck a chord with us here at Castle Howard,” says Nicholas Howard. “Joff Curtoys, Founder of Sloemotion Distillery (with a background in ecology and conservation) who sits on our Conservation Advisory Board, and their work using botanicals sourced from their local surroundings at Green Farm resonated with our wish to develop high quality, sustainable products from the estate here."

The gin partnership has been developed out of shared interests between Castle Howard’s estate conservation programme and the ethos of Barton-le-Willows-based Sloemotion Distillery, which has pioneered the use of locally foraged botanicals – including sloes and hedgerow fruits - to add to their classic London Dry Gin ingredients.