Land Business | Kindred Spirits: How Walter Riddell joined forces with chef Valentine Warner to diversify into gin production

Wild Northumberland is an unlikely setting for one of the world’s most stylish gins. But when Hepple Estate owner Walter Riddell decided to diversify, he joined forces with chef Valentine Warner and distilled the spirit of the local countryside

A young and intoxicating spirit is making a splash in Europe’s most stylish cocktail bars. But despite its fashionable following, Hepple Gin is produced in very different surroundings – the wild and beautiful Northumberland National Park. You’ll find the distillery on a traditional family estate that covers 4,000 acres of moorland, rough farmland and woods. It was this windswept environment that inspired estate owner Walter Riddell and his friend and business partner Valentine Warner to create Hepple Gin during a casual stroll across the estate. It was a walk that Riddell had taken hundreds of times since childhood. He had exchanged his career in the City for a sustainable future on his previously sleepy Northumberland property, and was considering how to put the land to good use. ‘I wanted to do pioneering stuff, not harvest subsidies from something like solar,’ he says. ‘I had started to think about what options there were in a part of the country where there is no economic infrastructure to hook into, while all the time keeping an eye on the environmental regulations within a national park.’ As luck would have it, the walk took him past some gnarled juniper trees, next to a spring and a ruined building, and suddenly all of the elements fell into place. ‘I’d always known about the juniper, the herbs and the trees,’ explains Riddell. ‘We had picnicked on the moor as children and played in the burn, cooking sausages on cast-off dead branches of juniper. I’d strolled past the empty barn where owls have been murdering mice for decades, but suddenly, as we walked, it all clicked and we realised that what we were searching for was right under our noses.’ 

Watch the video in very different surroundings – the wild and beautiful Northumberland National Park. You’ll find the distillery on a traditional family estate that covers 4,000 acres of moorland, rough farmland and woods. It was this windswept environment that inspired estate owner Walter Riddell and his friend and business partner Valentine Warner to create Hepple Gin during a casual stroll across the estate. It was a walk that Riddell had taken hundreds of times since childhood. He had exchanged his career in the City for a sustainable future on his previously sleepy Northumberland property, and was considering how to put the land to good use. ‘I wanted to do pioneering stuff, not harvest subsidies from something like solar,’ he says. ‘I had started to think about what options there were in a part of the country where there is no economic infrastructure to hook into, while all the time keeping an eye on the environmental regulations within a national park.’ As luck would have it, the walk took him past some gnarled juniper trees, next to a spring and a ruined building, and suddenly all of the elements fell into place. ‘I’d always known about the juniper, the herbs and the trees,’ explains Riddell. ‘We had picnicked on the moor as children and played in the burn, cooking sausages on cast-off dead branches of juniper. I’d strolled past the empty barn where owls have been murdering mice for decades, but suddenly, as we walked, it all clicked and we realised that what we were searching for was right under our noses.’ 

Wathc the Video

Creative thinking

It was at this moment that the idea for Hepple Gin was born. As Riddell and Warner developed the project, they realised that five of the spirit’s six key botanicals grew on the estate. The juniper was there, of course, but so too was the blackcurrant leaf, Douglas fir, bog myrtle and lovage that give the gin its distinctive taste. Only Amalfi lemon peel needed to be imported to complete the recipe. The other element that makes Hepple Gin unique is the specialist distilling process that has been used to create an exceptional depth of flavour. Warner describes it as the ‘triple technique’. ‘We use a traditional copper pot to give it a smooth, rich heart,’ he explains. ‘We also use a low-temperature vacuum distillation, which brings freshness, and an ultra-high-pressure extraction process to add resonance and depth.’ The aim was to distil a distinctive artisan gin, but it was a challenge to create a drink that stood apart from the competition. ‘Gin should always be about juniper and our triple technique brings out its full spectrum of flavour,’ says Warner. ‘But the formula didn’t come easily. We destroyed enormous quantities of alcohol during the trials, and the new equipment that we’d bought was so complex it had us sobbing by dry stone walls, wondering if we would ever master the contraption.’ Fortunately – thanks to Warner’s connections to the food and drink industry, through his career as a chef and cookery writer – they were able to work with master distiller Chris Garden, head distiller at London-based Sipsmith for more than five years; leading barman Nick Strangeway; and Cairbry Hill, who designed the distillery process. Their expertise helped not only with overcoming any technical issues but also in developing a spirit that would appeal to a global market. The proof, as they say, is in the drinking. Three years after Riddell and Warner had the initial idea on their walk around the estate, Hepple Gin won a double gold at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Everything in place The concept of Hepple Gin came at an opportune time. Shortly after he had set up the business, Riddell commissioned Strutt & Parker to review the estate. The resulting report warned of the need for change, encouraging the Riddells to consider how they might deal with the impending shake-up in agricultural support and global markets, and pointed out that estates like Hepple couldn’t rely on the traditional mainstays of farming and forestry. This helped to focus Riddell’s mind, convincing him that the distillery was the right way forward. As well as the challenge of actually producing the gin, the estate had to deal with the impact of the business on its pristine location. Strutt & Parker was able to offer additional support, helping to negotiate with the national park authorities, environmental agencies and the estate’s highly valued tenant farmer. ‘Hepple is the perfect model of an estate that has grabbed opportunities with both hands,’ explains Claire Whitfield, from the Land Management Department at Strutt & Parker’s Morpeth office. ‘It needed an alternative income stream to help sustain it and we were there in the background, encouraging and supporting them to be creative in dealing with change.’ The land is farmed by an agricultural tenant and it was important this longstanding arrangement was maintained. ‘The Riddells have a fantastic working relationship with the tenant,’ says Whitfield. ‘So it was about making sure absolutely nothing disrupted that and they have struck the balance brilliantly.’ For Riddell, establishing Hepple Gin has enabled him to reinvest in the estate, as well as to secure the future of the historic juniper trees by setting up a propagation programme with the national park and the environmental agencies. ‘I don’t ever expect to make a huge wage, or sell the business on to a foreign buyer, but it will help the estate and the area around it,’ he says. ‘We have had enormous local support and we rely heavily on other local businesses as we need to show the place off and do a lot of extra entertaining.’

Telling a story

Riddell is particularly excited by the rare combination of the latest technology in the distillery and the countryside around it. ‘Our gin carries a story that people really enjoy,’ he explains. ‘Taking the wildest plant that we have left in England and combining it with the triple-technique distilling process is proof that there is no longer any reason why you shouldn’t find the most cutting-edge technology and innovation in one of the most unspoilt areas of the country. I love contrasts, and the idea that technology and the environment aren’t actually at odds with one another is inspiring.’ It took just 18 months from realising the potential hidden in the estate to selling the first bottles of gin. For the moment, Riddell and Warner are focused on building a reputation rather than pushing sales, but in time they aim to scale up. ‘But it will be in partnership with Mother Nature,’ insists Riddell. ‘We need to nurture the hills and woods and water, and we want to have truth at the heart of the business. We want people to understand why we are different.’ For Whitfield, Hepple is an inspiration to other estates. ‘Change is a scary thing for anyone to deal with, but being able to embrace it and look to the future is important if estates like this one are going to thrive,’ she says. ‘Hepple is already helping to make important connections between the countryside and a modern, fashionable product that everyone loves. That is extremely positive, not only for this estate, but for other rural businesses that are looking to diversify.’

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To find out more about Strutt & Parker’s expertise in Estate Management, visit struttandparker.com/estate-management. Find out more about Hepple Gin at hepple-gin.com. This article originally appeared in Strutt & Parker’s magazine, Land Business Autumn/Winter 2017. Read the full magazine here.