Once sufficiently briefed, your Ginstructor will guide you through to one of our Blending Rooms to nose your way through an eclectic range of pure botanical distillates and choosing your favourites to create your own bespoke blend of gin. Once you’ve met King Henry, our illustrious 400L copper pot still and his diminutive roommate, Copernicus The Fourth (don’t ask about the other three), your gin instructor will explain to you the processes involved in creating gin and give a quick overview of the many rules and regulations which gin producers are obliged to abide. When you come in, you can find your new favourite bottle at our tasting counter, hire glasses, flutes and chiller bins free* and pick up some ice. It was here that, after discovering the lay of the distilling land and nine months of experimentation, Portobello Road Gin was born.

Taking the idea of a gin for the King of Corsica as our jumping off point we decided to create a gin inspired by the botanicals of Corsica and the surrounding Mediterranean area. This gin was released by the award-winning Notting Hill bar, Portobello Star, home of the Ginsitute.There will be a Tom Collins ready and waiting for you to enjoy and your host will then explain to the group the format of the next few hours, if you’ve read this you can just ignore them. Perfect Serve: Pair with Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water and garnish with a slice of lemon and a sprig of rosemary. Let us know if we need instructions for where to find your house or want us to leave your wine in the shed! Head upstairs to The Malt Floor, our cocktail lounge serivng innovative cocktails using different whiskies and gins from around the world. A full bottle of this will be assembled which each guest of The Ginstitute is able to take home with them at the end of the night.

In the mouth hits bright and vibrant, again with a nice dry finish, perhaps a little less spicy in flavour than some of the other gins but still with that lingering nutmeg heat, and like with the navy strength that tint hit of salt leaves you wanting more and the green olive gives us a lingering sense of dryness. As with a few of our other expressions, our Savoury Gin started life as a Distillery product, served exclusively at our home at 186 Portobello Road. Slowly but surely something they could be proud of emerged, created from a blend of nine completely natural botanicals from around the world including juniper berries and orris from Tuscany, Spanish lemon peels, bitter orange peels from Haiti or Morocco, nutmeg from Indonesia and cassia bark from South East Asia.We offer a wide range of plates that are accomodated to those with specific allergies or dietary restrictions. It's an old-style London Dry Gin, containing traditional botanicals and spices, that harks back to the gins of yesteryear. Sounds like a curious name for a gin, ‘King Theodore of Corsica’, but once upon a time there were many curious names for gin, such as Madame Genever, Diddle, Crank, Hearts Ease, Cats Water, Lighting, Daffy, to name but a few!

It was here that, after 9 months of experimentation, Portobello Road Gin was born; a timeless and versatile London Dry that salutes the distillers of the past. Allow our incredible team, led by Executive Chef Peter Breckon, to elevate your Christmas party to an experience you won’t forget. On the nose, this gin is exactly what you’d expect from both the name, the packaging and the list of botanicals, it’s still clearly gin, lots of juniper lots of citrus, but it is those delightful herbal notes from the basil and particularly the rosemary.Once each of the guests present has created and received their blend of gin you'll all be given one last cocktail, usually a Martini if you’re feeling up to it, and we’ll also present you with 2 miniature bottles of our personal blend to take away, which of course went on to become Portobello Road Gin. A menu of quintessential British dishes all created with local ingredients, with a selection of mouth-watering nibbles, small plates and larger main dishes.