Tarquin’s Cornish Gin launches into travel retail with UK-wide World Duty Free listing : Moodie Davitt Report

Capturing the spirit of the wild Cornish coast

Tarquin’s Founder and Master Distiller Tarquin Leadbetter pictured at a promotion with World Duty Free at Heathrow Airport

UK. Tarquin’s Cornish Gin from Southwestern Distillery in Padstow, Cornwall has announced the launch of three gins into travel retail in partnership with World Duty Free across several UK airports.

The launch coincides with the ten-year anniversary of a gin which has risen from humble roots in a Cornish cowshed (see The Back Story below) to being a national brand with listings in supermarket giants Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco.

Tarquin’s Gin said it is excited to make a big splash by “bringing the Wild Cornish Coast to the Airport” at every opportunity. The company plans to run national competitions as part of a year-long celebration of the brand’s travel retail debut with prizes ranging from surfboards to weekends away in Cornwall.

The brand offers extreme on-shelf appeal due to its eye-catching design, with every one of the half-million bottles produced annually waxed and stamped by hand.

“At Tarquin’s we’re always looking to try new things, test new products and enter new markets – we’re incredibly proud of our award-winning gins and can’t wait to share them with the millions of people visiting UK airports every week,” said Founder and Master Distiller Tarquin Leadbetter.

Ten years since first teaching himself how to distill gin, Leadbetter has established his eponymous brand as one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing super-premium gin brands, with volumes hitting 42,000 9-litre cases in 2021 according to the IWSR.

Brand expressions include Tarquin’s Cornish Dry Gin, Tarquin’s original recipe; Tarquin’s Blood Orange Gin; and Tarquin’s Pink Lemon, Pink Peppercorn and Pink Grapefruit Gin, described as the perfect middle ground between dry and fruit gins. ✈

The Back Story

Tarquin’s Cornish Gin was founded by self-taught Master Distiller Tarquin Leadbetter.

A classically trained chef from the Cordon Bleu in Paris, he found himself at the age of 23 in a moribund desk job in the City of London.

Determined to do something in line with his creative abilities and entrepreneurial instincts and supported by the business acumen and drive of his sister Athene, Leadbetter decided to create the first Cornish distillery for over 100 years.

Trials began in a converted cow shed with a 0.7 litre copper pot still. After much experimentation he settled on a combination of 12 botanicals – a concoction of roots, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits and flowers sourced from around the world and his back garden.

He purchased a second-hand 250-litre Portuguese alembic copper pot to boost production, calling it Tamara – Goddess of the river Tamar, the border between Devon and Cornwall. Everything was small-batch production, with no machines, automation nor outsourcing.

On 30 July 2013, the first bottle of Tarquin’s Cornish Gin, produced by the newly created Southwestern Distillery, was sold to the Gurnard Head Hotel in St. Ives, Cornwall. Two months later a second product was added – the first Pastis to be commercially distilled in the UK, beautifully named ‘Cornish Pastis’.

The Pastis duly won a Gold Medal at the 2014 San Francisco World Spirits Awards – the only Pastis in the world to win Gold that year. Tarquin’s Cornish Gin then snapped up a Gold Medal at the 2014 IWSC awards, one of only six gins worldwide to receive that accolade.

In 2017, a line extension called Tarquin’s The SeaDog Navy Strength Gin (57abv) was named World’s Best Gin at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition ahead of some 260 rivals.

On top of the world: Tarquin’s The SeaDog Navy Strength Gin

Fast forward to 2023 and Tarquin’s Cornish Dry Gin is sold in over 30 local markets worldwide and now, courtesy of World Duty Free, in travel retail.

The Back Story

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