UK DISTILLERY TOUR

If the inhabitants of the British Isles are regarded as drinkers, well, who can blame them when they’re so spoilt? From world-famous Scotch, and Irish whiskeys to London and Plymouth gin, the number of distilleries in the UK has more than doubled over the past five years. The entrepreneurial floodgates were pushed open in 2009, when London-based gin-maker Sipsmith was granted a licence to distil after two years of campaigning for a change in laws that had been in place since the 1751 Gin Act. Small-batch distilling was back on the agenda, and crate booze-making took off. You’ll now find distilleries in unlikely spots, from John o’ Groats to a car park in east London.

THE BATH DISTILLERY , SOMERSET

Drink from bottles labelled with a winking Jane Austen – sorry, ‘Gin Austen’ – at the Bath Gin Company , a multistorey experience off Bath Spa’s cobbled streets. Despite the historic setting and literary reference, this gin veers away from tradition, dialling down juniper and amping up botanicals such as kaffir lime and liquorice. A tour of the basement distillery is short and sweet, but it can be combined with a botanicals workshop in the first-floor Distiller’s Bar, a colourful space for gin blending – you’ll leave with a filled hip flask. However, it’s the Canary Bar that attracts the most attention: a cocktail joint with a Victorian aesthetic and 230 gins in stock (including Bath’s