Craft Gin Club Summer Road Trip: whet your whistle in Wales

Summer time = traveling time! What's better than throwing your gear in a suitcase and throwing your work into the dustbin as you leave your stress and troubles far behind in exchange for a sun-filled season of new adventures? We can't think of much - except sipping a cool, craft G&T. But what makes that G&T even better? Drinking it at the distillery where the gin was made!

This summer, we're taking a trip through the regions of our craft distiller partners, the places where they make the delicious, small-batch gins that Craft Gin Club Members enjoy every month. 

This July, we are proud to feature our first Welsh gins from the Dà Mhìle Distillery which sits on the Glynhynod Farm in Ceredigion County. The farm has been inhabited by the Savage-Onstwedder family since the early 1980s when the family patriarch - who is of Dutch and Scottish heritage - immigrated from Wales to set up an organic farm on the property where he has since been making Teifi Farmhouse Cheese - the most-awarded cheese in Britain. John’s first spirit, an organic whisky to bring in the new millennium, was put in its cask some twenty years before he actually decided to set up a distillery on the farm. Today, Teifi Cheeses are still bringing home awards with their spirits now following. 

If you want to swing by and taste some of their seaweed gin, the team at Dà Mhìle would be happy to receive you. Since you’ll be in the area, here are some other activities to introduce you to this region rich in local beauty and produce. 

It’s no surprise that we suggest a visit to the Dà Mhìle Distillery to taste their imaginative spirits such as seaweed gin, an orange liqueur made with a different kind of orange each time, and their organic whiskies. To organise a visit, just give them a call: 01239 851 528 You can also find great beers at the Penlon Cottage Brewery - “a true farmhouse brewery”.

The Glynhynod Farm is far from the only local producer of fine food & drink - a number of their neighbours do to. They have joined together to create the Ceredigion Taste Trail, a lovely drive through the rolling green hills of the region where visitors can stop off, have a taste of the region’s wares, and bring some home with them. Apart from Teifi Cheese and the beautiful spirits made on Glynhynod, you can find local chocolates, shellfish, preserves, meats, honey and ice cream.

Whether you’re looking for a long, seaside walk or to hang 10 with the local surfers take the short drive from the Da Mhile Distillery down to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Activities in the park, which covers 240 sq miles, include canoeing around the coastal rocks and cliffs, checking out the local wildlife like seals and crabs, and visiting Carew Castle originally built in the year 1270.

Being held this year from August 22 to 31st, the Ceredigion Art Trail features the works of local artists all in the amazing natural settings of the region. Artists open their studios to the public, which can walk or drive from place to place, or show off their works in group exhibitions. Visitors have the chance to speak with all of the artists and buy the works to take home.

Devil’s Bridge, one of the world’s most unique bridges, is actually three bridges! Construction on the first bridge began nearly 1,000 years ago in 1075. A second bridge used this old bridge for scaffolding and support as it was built over the first in 1753 which was then trumped by an iron bridge built in 1901. The bridges are all built over a narrow ravine where the River Mynach falls 90 meters - a terrifying fall and one difficult to build over, so difficult that local legend holds that no human could possibly build the bridge and that in fact, it was the devil that did so in exchange for the soul of the first being to cross it. One clever woman fooled the devil. She threw a piece of bread onto the bridge for her dog to chase. So the devil got the soul of a dog!