Meet Bombay Sapphire’s first master distiller

By Nicholas Robinson

- Last updated on GMT

Botanicals are grown at Bombay Sapphire's new visitor centre
Botanicals are grown at Bombay Sapphire's new visitor centre

Related tags Distillation

Nik Fordham is Bombay Sapphire’s first master distiller, he tells Nicholas Robinson

Key points

I am Bombay Sapphire’s first master distiller. I had been working for the Chivas Brothers as a distillery manager for Beefeater gin since 2008, before I got a call asking me to work here.

This is the brand’s first home; Bombay Sapphire had been distilled under license by G&J Distillers in Warrington for the past two decades. There's no need to discuss the potential issues that could occur when you license out the manufacture of a brand, because we're doing it ourselves now.

We started distilling gin here last year after a multi-million pound renovation plan to turn the derelict site, which was a paper mill for more than 200 years, into something that could be our home for the next 100 years.

Bombay Sapphire, which is now owned by Bacardi, was technically first invented in 1761 by Thomas Dakin, who developed a unique blend of eight exotic botanicals. The secret recipe has been handed down from distiller to distiller and can be traced all the way to Bombay Sapphire's new Laverstoke distillery here in Hampshire.

Although, Bombay Sapphire as a brand wasn’t created until much later.

The process (Return to top)

The spirit is distilled with 10 botanicals now and includes lemon peel, coriander seeds, angelica root, orris root, grains of paradise, cubeb berries, cassia bark, almonds and liquorice. But, the most important ingredient is juniper berries. According to an EU law passed on March 2008, gin must be predominantly flavoured with it.

There are four stills here. Two are historical and based on those that Mary Dakin – Thomas Dakin’s – daughter bought and adapted in 1836. They are named Thomas and Mary Dakin and have a capacity of 3,400l. The other two more modern stills each have a 12,000l capacity and are named Henry and Victory – Henry after my son and Victoria after Queen Victoria.

Bombay’s distillation process relies on a vapour infusion method, which means the botanicals are not boiled directly in the spirit, but kept in copper baskets above it to be steam-infused.

To start the gin-making process, we bring in grain neutral spirit (GNS) by tanker, which is pumped into our new 400,000l capacity tank farm for storage.

GNS is then pumped from the tank farm into either Henry or Victoria, which are our primary stills. The stills would have been pre-heated to a temperature of 68°C before production, which reduces the processing time from 13.5 hours to just 11 hours.

Once the GNS is in the still it is heated to temperatures of up to 89°C, when it turns into vapour and passes through the distillation column, which controls the flow of vapour through the rest of the process.

Vapour then passes through the vapour infusion baskets, which house the 10 botanicals. It then passes through another chamber and into the condensing column where cold water running through pipes gently cools it and returns it to liquid.

Our process is known as a single fold distillation, which means the ABV [alcohol by volume] of the spirit is diluted once with purified water to our bottling strength of 49% volume.

We ‘nose’ it to make sure it’s the right quality and then it’s put out of the door in tankers to be bottled in Warrington.

The potential output of the whole site theoretically is somewhere around 3.5M nine-litre cases a year.

However, as soon as we start to reach anywhere near that figure, I have a mothballed distillery where I can bring in another couple of stills and add another 33% output on top of that.

Another still house would cost several millions of pounds to bring into operation, at least. But it absolutely will happen because the brand has been so successful over the past 10 years.

Keeping it lean (Return to top)

Until that happens, we will focus on ensuring we are operating as efficiently as possible here. We have 40 members of staff who carry out different roles including looking after the new visitors’ centre. Distilling is a 24-hour operation and we run two 12-hour shifts, seven days a week with two members of staff on each shift.

Pre-heating the stills is one part of our plan to maintain a lean manufacturing process. It reduces our cycle time by two-and-a-half hours, which gives us an 18% time saving.

But we’re also looking at other ways of reducing our cycle times, as well as ways to improve the turnover of each still.

We’ve got ‘just-in-time’ ordering on all of our botanicals, which means we don't run the risk of losing stock to age. But I'm also looking at energy efficiency, waste reduction and reducing the use of our water, gas and electricity.

To help improve our energy efficiency, we have a refurbished open-flume turbine, which is original to the site from its paper milling days. It has an output of 76kWh only, which isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, but it powers around 300 LEDs [light emitting diodes] 24-hours-a-day seven-days-a-week.

Then there’s our biomass boiler, which produces enough energy to create 25% of our steam-raising capacity on site. Almost 10% of the fuel used in the biomass boiler comes from the spent botanicals used to infuse the gin. The ash from the biomass boiler then goes out to the farmland that grows the grain to make the GNS, so it's a full circle.

Also, by using the spent botanicals to part-power the biomass boiler, we effectively get one round of distillation-worth of heat for free every so many cycles.

My career (Return to top)

Before working in gin, I worked in research and development for Unilever in the production of bacterial latex glutenation kits.

Then I went all of the way through Unilever’s world class manufacturing and management improvement programme, then into project management. I then worked for Johnson & Johnson, where I was an operations manager and a team leader for two years.

I am glad I didn’t come into it sooner because I’ve managed to bring all of my operational experiences from Unilever and Johnson & Johnson to this job.

Me working in distilling makes sense because I have a combined degree in biology and chemistry. Chemical engineering allows you to understand the gin-making processes – boiling, steam-raising, evaporating and cooling; my background allows me to understand all of it.

Also, I studied with the Institute of Brewing and Distilling in 2010, which is where I won the gin and vodka award for the first year of my course. I did the three-year course in two years and won the Worshipful Company of Distillers’ award for excellence in my last year.

I may be the company’s first master distiller, but I'm leading the way for the site’s future masters and that’s exciting. I'm proud to be setting the bar.

Personal

Name: Nik Fordham. Age: 44

Domestics: Married with one son named Henry who is aged 11

Outside of work: I sail, I row up and down the Thames. I take my two German Wirehaired Pointers out walking.

Biggest achievement: From a work perspective, it’s getting the Worshipful Company of Distillers’ award for excellence. It was one of my high points and it’s recognition from your peer group. Also, getting this distillery functional that’s been no easy feat.

Fordham takes you on a tour of the gin production process in our exclusive photogallery.

Factory facts (Return to top)

Location: Bombay Sapphire Distillery, Laverstoke Mill, London Road, Laverstoke, Whitchurch, Hampshire RG28 7NR

Staff: 40

Products: Bombay Sapphire gin

Customers: Trade, such as pubs, bars and restaurants and retail

Output: Potentially 3.5M nine-litre cases a year

Related topics People & Skills Drinks

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