Our spirit is your spirit
Mayfly Gin starts with our location. We craft ‘True River Spirit’ on the banks of the world famous River Test, in the heart of the English countryside in Hampshire.
The river is internationally renowned for its fly fishing and ‘gin-clear waters' and it is this backdrop that provides the inspiration behind The River Test Distillery.
We wanted to make an outstanding gin, a gin which both compliments a premium tonic and is distinctive enough to be enjoyed neat, as a sipping gin, simply with ice.
Our gin is the spirit of the river and its botanicals in a bottle, which in itself tells our story.
How we create and distill
In 2017 we enrolled on a distilling course in Sunderland and joined other enthusiasts from all over the world, with a wide variety of backgrounds, who were keen to explore all the challenges of producing spirits and opening a distillery. Experience ranged from individuals with 25 years in the drinks industry to people like us, with little knowledge but a lot of passion.
It was on this course that we heard about a Dutch company called iStill that was innovating the process of distillation and bringing it into the 21st Century. Intrigued, we then enrolled on the iStill University course and travelled to Woerden near Amsterdam in The Netherlands, to meet Odin and the team and learn more about iStill.
The iStill is a perfect fit for us and the versatility of the iStill allows us to create different products. The automation and robotisation gives us complete control over the spirits’ production process which means we can create the same handcrafted recipes time after time.