Spirit of the Chiefs!

Premiership Champions Exeter Chiefs recently swapped their training ground at Sandy Park, Exeter for the award-winning Salcombe Distilling Co. in the beautiful seaside town of Salcombe. These highly skilled team players used their charisma and flair to raise the bar creating delicious Salcombe Gin cocktails.

It was then head to head in a play-off to design and develop their very own bottle of gin at the Salcombe Gin School accompanied by Exeter Rugby Club Chairman and Chief Executive, Tony Rowe OBE.

Tony said: “Salcombe Gin, is very popular amongst those who visit Sandy Park for match-days as well as the many functions, dinners and events we host. We have a new Gin & Fizz Bar and it’s great that we have such a fantastic product available right here on our doorstep”.

He continued, “As someone who is partial to the odd drop of gin, it was fantastic for myself and the players to get a real insight into how they make Salcombe Gin. Not only did we find the trip hugely informative, but to then get the chance to distill our own was great fun”.

Howard Davies co-founder, said “We were delighted to host Tony and the players at our waterside distillery. They were intrigued about how we make our award-winning gin and were soon shaking some cocktails behind the bar before heading over to our Gin School. They each took charge of a mini-copper still in our distilling laboratory, choosing from over 100 botanicals to create their unique gin recipe”.

Salcombe Gin head distiller, Jason Nickels continued, “As you would expect, they were all highly competitive, seeking perfection at every stage of the process but we also had a lot of fun along the way. Walnuts were a dominant flavour in Tony’s gin and Jack used coffee in his, resulting in some awesome espresso martinis shaken in the distillery bar afterwards”.

It was the perfect match between two award-winning teams in Devon.

Photo credit Frances McMahon