Navarro Wines offer a large range of wines and friendly help to navigate towards the best choice for you. A personal service which can only be found in a successful independent shop. So what do Amanda and Simon make of their new industry colleagues? “Gin people are so nice!” Amanda enthuses. “We were very aware that it is a saturated market, people were saying there was not space for another gin, but a lot of people told us to go for it and we have had a lot of support from the industry, other gin makers and suppliers. The line up of bands, artists and comedy acts this year is outstanding, it’s going to be 10 days of non-stop entertainment, fun and laughter at the end of July – just what we all need! The eagle eyed among you may, in the next few months, notice we’ve created a new, improved bottle. It is still stunning, the beautiful Art Deco inspired pattern is the same and it still shimmers in the sunlight or indeed the “spotlight”. BUT it is now way more environmentally friendly! Hand crafted in small batches in the heart of Ealing, it blends flavours from the finest of botanicals and delivers both complexity and sophistication.

Of course this means you have to get your recipe and your distillation exactly right! We worked on our Ealing Gin recipe (our beautiful mix of botanicals) for a long time tweaking and changing many times to create the deep-flavoured, distinct taste we wanted. When we distil, we fill up Felicity (our traditional copper still) with the precise mix of botanicals along with 96% ABV neutral grain spirit and pure filtered water. The botanicals steep for a full 24 hours before we switch Felicity on and let her do her magic. We discard the first and last parts of the distillation (called the heads and the tails) collecting only “the hearts” which, again for a London Dry, must be above 70% ABV. This gorgeous liquid is “cut” to 42% ABV with pure filtered water and this is the beautiful, smooth, deep-flavoured, gin that goes into our stunning Ealing Gin bottles. The idea to make a gin that spoke of its roots came from Amanda’s family in the north east. “I am originally from Durham, and Durham Gin launched in 2014. Because a lot of my family are in the north east we got about 10 bottles of Durham Gin in the first year after it launched, because everyone that came down brought us a bottle,” she laughs. “We thought Ealing people would do that to show off a product from their town and people are telling us that that is what they are doing with our gin – taking a little bit of where they are from as gifting.” The ‘queen on London’ dry gin is inspired by Ealing’s parks and gardens A premium London Dry Gin… elegant, small-batch… in a bottle made for showing off.” Evening Standard Ingredients: 3 Tbsp. Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin, 1 Tbsp. pink peppercorn syrup, 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. pink grapefruit juice. Method: Pour Jaisalmer Gin, peppercorn syrup, fresh lemon juice, and pink grapefruit juice into a shaker.We are proud to say, our super premium, award-winning London dry, Ealing Gin was selected by The Cask Spirit Company to produce its cask strength London dry gin. Established in 2009, Fair is the leading independent, international brand of ethical, fair trade spirits. It offers high-quality, environmentally friendly spirits, sourcing natural ingredients from local farming communities across the globe. Never compromising on taste, this human-centric organization involves everyone from a small farmer in a hidden corner of the world, to a Charente region distiller, all the way to the final consumer. I love how floral it tastes, almost like a French perfume. Clonakilty Distillery 3. Minke Gin, Ireland

Highlighjts include: Chris Jagger, a tribute to Alexis Korner & The birth of British blues, Wilko Johnson, Robert Hokum and the Great West Groove big band plus many more old and new favouritesThe Ealing Summer Festival is a massively popular fixture on the West London summer social scene, attracting thousands of people and featuring some of the biggest names in comedy, jazz and blues. “We are delighted to have a local business as our headline partner, especially a brand that embodies everything we love about Ealing. We’ll be serving the beautiful gin at the bar and creating a chill-out Ealing Gin garden area for festival visitors to enjoy along with all the brilliant acts we’ve secured for this year’s stella line-up.” Ealing Gin won a gold medal in the recent highly prestigious IWSC (International Wine & Spirits Competition) in the London Dry Gin category with a score of 95 points. Judges commented on the “Juicy citrus, floral, camomile and juniper clearly coming through on the aromas in the nose. Botanicals layering on the palate with pine and juniper at the forefront combining with citrus. Good balance and classical flavours displayed in this spirit.” We’ve watched it grow and grow with the addition of the Blues and the Comedy and we couldn’t be happier to now be able to sponsor it and to introduce Ealing Gin to a bigger audience!” comments Amanda Duncan (she and her husband Simon are the makers of Ealing Gin). Riding Wine Co. is an independent, local wine shop and bar. It sells natural wines, made by family-owned and passionate winemakers.