Burleigh's Gin
Burleigh’s Gin Distillery is based a couple of miles away from us, just down the road in Nanpantan.
Leicester entrepreneur and spirits branding guru Phil Burley, along with long-term business partner Graham Veitch, set about creating a new distillery in 2013. Keen to assess viability, they got in touch with industry veteran, Jamie Baxter. Just one hour after meeting, they had decided to build their own distillery in Leicestershire. The first product was always going to be gin but they also set their sight on other services which weren't being catered for, leading to the creation of sister company 45 Gin School.
Despite some intial issues with location - at first wanting to be in the city centre - they ended up on the picturesque Bawdon Lodge Farm in Nanpantan. But surprisingly, they didn't yet have a brand name for the product they were about to make. Struggling to find something to set them apart and celebrate their Leicester roots, a chance encounter sealed the fate of their new product.
A friend came to visit and, as he had studied at Loughborough University, persuaded Jamie to take a walk with him in some woods close to the distillery. Those woods were Burleigh Woods, located close to our Burleigh Court Conference Centre! As they walked, his friend pointed out some dandelion and burdock growing next to each other and joked that they could be made into a drink. It struck Jamie that was exactly what he was trying to do and so got in some samples of those two, plus silver birch and elderberry, as well as several others that they saw growing. And thus, the brand Burleigh's Gin was born!
What better synergy can you get between product and place?! When we recently refurbished our bedrooms at Burleigh Court, we used images of Burleigh's Wood in all our rooms as a celebration to our locality, so what better product to serve on our bars than this amazing and incredibly local gin?
The BC Vespa
Why not give our own signature house cocktail?
Famously James Bond’s cocktail of choice, The Vespa, is made with Lillet and London dry gin. We put a twist on it by using Burliegh’s Distillers Cut, Freya (a spirit made with birch bark sap) and Blackdown, a vermouth that is made from birch. This martini is not for the faint-hearted so be warned - it is strong!
No soiree is complete without a salmon blini. We make a cured salmon using bergamot juice and Distillers Cut. First we brine the salmon in a mix of salt and gin and this sits overnight. We then rinse it and pat it dry. The brining tightens up the fibres and makes the fish firmer, which is ideal for thin slicing.
Blinis are little bulger wheat crumpets, which are widely available in supermarkets. A little cream cheese is whipped with the remaining juice from the bergamot and is pipped onto the blini. The sliced salmon is tossed quickly in the bergamot juice. As the lemon juice is acidic it will cook the salmon in minutes.
Top the blini quickly and serve!
Download our Rooted In Food brochure
We love creating exciting menus that celebrate our local food heroes. That's why every proposal that we send out includes our Rooted in Food brochure to whet your appetite.
This brochure contains just a sample of the sort of menus we can produce for your event and is designed to give you a sense of our passion for great food. They are sample menus and are subject to change based on availability of produce.
