Lancashire's Food Revolution: Goosnargh Gin
As part of our series on Lancashire's artisan food revolution, we talk to Richard and Rachel Trenchard, owners of the Goosnargh Gin distillery in the Forest of Bowland
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00:00 The more sort of mass market you are, the more you just become another gin.
00:05 And I think there's a real interest in doing food and drink the right way.
00:10 So I'm Richard.
00:13 And I'm Rachel.
00:14 Rachel, my wife.
00:16 And we are co-founders and owners of Guzna Gin.
00:22 And Guzna Gin is based right at the bottom of Beacon Fell.
00:26 The gateway to the Forest of Boland is where we are.
00:29 And everything that we do at Guzna Gin is designed to celebrate, promote,
00:35 or give back to the Forest of Boland in some way.
00:39 Because rather than just creating gin for the sake of making gin,
00:43 they all tie back to that Forest of Boland and get people interested in
00:48 either finding out a little bit more about that area,
00:51 or coming visiting us and coming saying hello,
00:54 or coming exploring some of the other businesses and accommodations in the area as well.
00:59 So all the gins, basically their contents reflect this area in some way.
01:03 The botanicals we choose to use, or links to the geography and heritage of the area,
01:08 is how we tell the story of Boland through each of the chapters of the gins we produce.
01:13 We do four gins that stay with us all year round.
01:17 So all in chapters because they tell a story of the Forest of Boland.
01:21 So chapter one, we'll use botanicals that you're able to see and find growing naturally in the forest.
01:27 Things like chamomile, elderflower, meadowsweet, yarrow.
01:31 So chapter two, this one's our own spice gin and it's called Dark Skies.
01:36 The reason it's called Dark Skies is because Beacon Fell, where Richard said we're at the foot of here,
01:41 has a Dark Skies status.
01:44 So this one's more of a warming spice gin.
01:47 Things like cardamom, root ginger, aniseed, cloves, vanilla.
01:51 That vanilla just softens all that spice.
01:53 That's one to kind of hunker down with and hug your glass and sip and savour when you're outside watching those meteors at night.
02:01 This one is called Dappled Light.
02:04 A kind of nice, tranquil gin really.
02:07 Imagine that dappled light coming through the trees.
02:09 This is our more junior for forward gin for people who like a more classic London dry style of gin.
02:16 Chapter seven's a really interesting gin.
02:19 It is the most fruity gin that we do, but without it being a coloured gin at all.
02:25 So crystal clear, you'll see there, but ram, ram packed full of dark fruits
02:30 and it's designed to celebrate the wild moors of the Forest of Bolan.
02:34 And how important is it to be in such a special place like Lancashire?
02:38 Couldn't be in a better place.
02:40 We're both Lancashire born and bred, so super, super proud of the county as a whole.
02:46 It provides a huge amount of inspiration for what we do.
02:50 You know, not only is it visually stunning, but an amazing place for, you know, not just good food and drink.
02:58 We're talking world class, award winning, inspirational food and drink.
03:04 We only retail through independent retailers. We don't sell through mass market routes.
03:10 We don't sell through supermarkets. We don't sell through Amazon.
03:13 We solely champion the independent sector.
03:16 So we're not putting our independent retailers in competition with the supermarket down the road.
03:21 We're solely championing those independent businesses.
03:24 So independent wines and spirits, stockists, delis, farm shops, independent food halls.
03:29 Who really, you know, want to tell that story as well.
03:34 It's not, you know, we're not selling online in a faceless way.
03:37 And do you think that the independence championing each other is what's driving this,
03:43 these awards and these Michelin star chefs coming to the area and bringing all this sort of success to Lancashire?
03:50 I think a lot of it has always been there.
03:52 I think what it is now, I think we're managing to get out there a lot better, possibly than we have in the past.
03:59 But what is happening in the north, you know, I think a lot of things in previously have been very London centric or very South centric.
04:08 These things, these, you know, these chefs and restaurants and producers have, you know, in a lot of cases been around a long time.
04:16 And now it's just kind of being put on the map a lot more, which is fabulous.
04:21 So a series like the Hairy Bikers Go North, that, you know, championed the north of England and showed people, you know, what is going on in this region.
04:31 Which is fantastic.
04:32 You look at a five mile radius of us here at the distillery and you've got eight world class cheese producers, for example, within a five mile radius of here.
04:44 I think it's us shouting loud and proud about what this region has got to offer really.
04:51 I think that's probably the key.
04:52 So do you think COVID has played a part in any of this?
04:55 COVID actually focused people's minds a little bit more about where and how they wanted to shop and the products that they could therefore buy.
05:05 What they found is that actually a lot of the independent farm shops were doing veg box deliveries or they could actually go and shop there and be a little bit more sort of calm and relaxed.
05:18 And actually they found during COVID that they could go into one of those shops and it's just such a nicer shopping experience.
05:26 Or 99 times out of 100, that product that you're getting in an independent venue and you take home, you're going to really, really love.
05:34 People were enforced almost into that slower pace of life somehow.
05:40 It really made them stop and reflect and think.
05:45 The people now are very much, I think, thinking a lot more about the quality of what they're eating and drinking rather than having lots of it.
05:55 So something being better and then knowing the provenance of it and the traceability of it and then being able to speak to the person behind producing it.
06:06 We could quite easily have gone for volume.
06:10 We could have moved out of here into a soulless industrial unit.
06:13 It's not what we want.
06:14 We are an Aztlan producer.
06:16 We are producing in small batches.
06:18 It just helps to make that connection with where people's produce is coming from.
06:25 And there is a reason why each of these gyms are created.
06:28 It's about really showcasing and having a reason behind everything.
06:32 And a passion.
06:33 Those core values have always been and will always be what we're about.
06:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]