Bombay Sapphire Experience and Watership Down pub

Most distilleries have some sort of distinguishing feature to make them stand out a little from the crowd. Is it the size of the samples, the over-the-top-ness of the guides, the exquisite glassware or is it ... architecture? Unlikely though it may seem, Bombay Sapphire's is just that and very glamorous and impactful it is too. If you're into repurposing of old buildings, imaginative things to do with steel and glass or the brickwork styles from different parts of the country, it's all here for you to gaze at.

But let's not forget the gin! Bombay Sapphire is one of those spirits that's in most people's drinks cupboard. Originally it may have seemed exotic and then it became the sort of de facto choice, particularly when making cocktails. Yet its origins are a fair time ago - 1830's Warrington to be precise, where a new technique for infusing botanicals into the gin was developed by Mary Dakin. Instead of being boiled in the alcohol, the liquor was distilled and the vapour was passed through a copper basket containing the botanicals and then on into the cooling section where the spirit became liquid once more. The original stills that Mary Dakin used are still in use for specialist gins, but much bigger ones are on site at Laverstoke, where the company began distilling in 2013.

This site is a former paper mill that was built by Henry Portal in 1719, specifically for banknote paper that was used all over the world. The main stills are housed in the building which was originally used for all the paper that was exported to India for rupees. The work that was done in the repurposing of the whole suite of buildings has been undertaken by Bombay Sapphire's owners, Bacardi. They sank a huge amount of money into the enterprise in order to create a visitor centre and attraction that could be a hub for their corporate entertaining and events.

The centrepiece of this work is the two glasshouses that flow out from the walls of one of the buildings and into which is pumped excess heat from the distillation process. Housed in these beautiful places are growing examples of all twelve botanicals that give Bombay Sapphire its unique aroma and taste.

We went along with a gift voucher for the Infusion Experience which comprises a tour of the distillery and then a mixing seminar in which you create and drink three cocktails. Typical Nick and Gabs, you might think. Only there for the drink, but actually the whole experience was delightful. We'd parked up the road at the Watership Down Inn where we were to stay the night and trotted down the footpath ("15 minutes there and 20 minutes back" we were told) to arrive early, check in and go for a passable mocha in the cafe. Very nice.

Our tour began with a gin and tonic - what else - which we served ourselves from a machine and, no you can't get one installed at home! Then a movie of the background to the brand and its product, followed by a walk around the various parts of the distillery. They don't create the alcohol at Laverstoke - that was the first surprise. They only distill it, infuse it and then store it in huge tanks. The creation of the alcohol is the messy bit and, frankly, it can be made of anything that contains sugars, so they buy it in in bulk and process it thereafter.

The infusion of the botanicals takes place in copper baskets that are placed in a sealed camber into which the vapour from the heated vessel flows. As they lose their virtue and become exhausted so the top and tails of the process are taken off and used for other products such as hand sanitiser and the residue is either composted in a digester or put into the biomass boiler.

As the factory sits across the River Test whose chalk streams fed the requirements for water of the paper mill originally, one might think that Bombay Sapphire is then diluted to its required volume using that water. Second surprise - nope. The distilled liquor is loaded into tankers and sent off to Scotland where the water is softer and more conducive to the requirements of one's palate. So no making of the alcohol, no diluting of it and of course no bottling either..

Following the 90-minute tour we had a bite of lunch in preparation for the mixologist who was going to take us through the making of three cocktails, using Bombay Citron Pressé, and Bombay Bramble - both relatively new products in the line. Our tutor was a young slip of a lad (aren't they all?) called Tyler. He taught us many great basics, including largely, how not to screw it up! Best one was a fancy way of pouring in the tonic/soda, down the stem of the muddler - see Gabrielle practising with a worried look above!

First up a Tom Collins, with sugar, lemon juice and citron pressé and topped off with soda. Then we tasted the lemon gin on its own but moved on to the bramble gin with a Bramble cocktail. Again, pretty easy, with sugar, lemon and the gin. The third cocktail was either the Clover Club which contained the bramble gin, sugar, lemon and egg white (that was Nick's) or a White Lady (not on their website) which was Gabrielle's. Lots of shaking for these! The great thing about this session was that there were only six of us and Tyler was really informative and quite amusing. Behind him on the wall was a collection of gins from around the world as well as the Bombay Sapphire product range.

By the end of the session we were fairly well oiled. Tyler had offered us the option to use the 25ml or 50ml ends of the jigger for each cocktail and we had of course to keep our end up. So, knowing that moderation is the mother of ... something or another ... we headed back to the Watership Down where we had booked a very late lunch and arrived with about ten minutes to spare before they closed the kitchens. It seemed rude to be in a pub without a glass of something so a very nice bottle of rosé complemented our roast dinners. And so to bed. Well, actually not because it was only about 5.30pm when we packed up so we moved into our room, stumbled around a bit, Gabrielle had a video call with Becky and then we read, watched the final episode of Succession (disappointing) and then eventually called it a day at ten pm. How we managed not to sleep before then is something of a miracle but we awoke bright and breezy after a night with the covers off, windows open and the lingering smells of the thunderstorm still permeating the room.

The pub is very nice and very well used to over-refreshed visitors coming back from the distillery. We had a great day and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone.