Charles Maxwell
MASTER DISTILLER
“I’m never happier than when our stills are churning away making gin,” says master distiller Charles Maxwell, who produces Fifty Pounds Gin at Thames Distillers in London. “It’s my passion.”
Which might sound easy to say in light of how popular gin is nowadays, but Charles has proven his commitment to this spirit over a long career in the drinks industry, particularly during a time when most people favoured vodka.
It was during this time, in the early 1990s, that Charles set up Thames Distillers, continuing a family tradition that dates back to 1681, when his eighth great grandfather was apprenticed as a distiller in the City of London. His family has produced gin in London ever since, for eleven generations, right up to the pivotal role that he’s played in the spirit’s recent revival.
“For the first 12 years I would sometimes go to bed wondering what I’d done, but I wasn’t bloody going to give up. And then, hey presto, along came the 2000s,” he says.
He resists the suggestion that this was visionary on his part. “No it wasn’t – it was obstinate,” he laughs. “It was just what I knew. It’s totally in my blood.”
Before opening his distillery in London, Charles had spent all of his working life in the drinks industry in a variety of roles. He began working in the family business, which among other things produced Stones Ginger Wine. His early days were spent in the warehouse, getting involved in various aspects of production, such as the macerating and fermenting of raisins and sultanas, fortifying and steeping with ginger – a process that took up to a year from start to finish.
He continued to immerse himself in all aspects of the drinks trade. Training in accounting led to him computerising stock records for the business in the late 1970s. He spent some time in drinks sales, selling port and champagne in the City. Later he was involved in British wine.
Which all led him to creating Thames Distillers, and being in the perfect place for gin’s renaissance.
In 2007 he created Fifty Pounds Gin, which was inspired in an earlier period of boom and bust for the spirit immortalised by Hogarth’s Gin Lane and Beer Street prints in the mid-18th century.
The brief, Charles explains, was to create a traditional London gin with a good citrus component as well as some spice, that would first and foremost make an excellent G&T.
As it turns out, the brief was entirely compatible with his own opinions about gin. “It’s a traditional gin. I’m a bit of an old stickler in my late sixties… I’m of the view that if you’re going to call it gin, it should be juniper led, and everything else should fall in behind that.”
Fifty Pounds certainly has all that and more. “It’s well balanced, with the juniper very distinctive in the front, but with these other elements behind it,” he says. “It’s complex, with citrus peels on top of the coriander seed, balanced off by spices like grains of paradise. It’s a seductive gin. If you have one, you’d definitely want another one.”
Charles Maxwell
“I’m never happier than when our stills are churning away making gin,” says master distiller Charles Maxwell, who produces Fifty Pounds Gin at Thames Distillers in London. “It’s my passion.”
