Hepple Aquavit
Hepple, England, United Kingdom
- ABV
- 40%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Hepple Aquavit is an English aquavit produced on the Hepple Estate in Northumberland and bottled at 40% ABV in 700 ml bottles. Its development grew from a suggestion by Norwegian bartender Monica Berg and later became a collaboration with Swedish chef Alex Nietosvuori of Restaurant Hjem in Northumberland.
The spirit takes its inspiration from Scandinavian aquavit and centres on the traditional combination of caraway and dill. Its development was shaped around the relationship between Nordic flavours and the landscape of Northumberland, a theme reinforced by Nietosvuori’s Scandinavian approach to cooking at Hjem.
Hepple had already been producing aquavit several years before the current retail expression appeared. In 2019, Tayēr + Elementary in London was sourcing both gin and aquavit from Hepple in bulk, with Tayēr Aquavit appearing on its opening menu. A Hjem x Hepple aquavit was subsequently documented in 2022, while Hepple Aquavit formed part of the distillery’s newly designed bottled range by 2024.
About the producer
Hepple Spirits
Hepple, England, United Kingdom
Hepple Spirits was founded in 2014 on the Hepple Estate in Northumberland. The project brought together estate owner Walter Riddell, chef and naturalist Valentine Warner, bartender Nick Strangeway and distiller Chris Garden, who had previously spent five years at Sipsmith. Cairbry Hill was also closely involved in the technical development of the distillery’s early extraction system. The first Hepple Gin was commercially launched in October 2015.
The distillery is located on the 4,000-acre Hepple Estate inside Northumberland National Park. Local ingredients harvested from the estate have included wild juniper, Douglas fir, blackcurrant leaves, lovage and other plants. Hepple combines traditional copper pot distillation with low-temperature vacuum distillation and supercritical extraction, using the different techniques to capture different aspects of botanical flavour.
The range developed from gin into vodka, sloe and hawthorn gin, aquavit and other expressions. In 2020 Hani Farsi joined the company as chairman, while the wider Hepple Estate subsequently developed a large-scale wilding programme alongside its spirits production. The legal company operating the distillery is Moorland Spirit Company Limited.