Our island home is in full bloom in June, making it the perfect month for Guernsey’s Floral Festival and a great excuse for Mr W to create a celebratory new infusion.  Available only at our home at Guernsey’s Gin Hotel, the Bella Luce, through the month of June this special limited edition infusion will be full of beautiful floral flavours and include botanicals foraged or grown here on Guernsey.

“The gin will be a blend of Guernsey grown kumquat and foraged elderflower with 13 other botanicals including hibiscus flower and lavender.”

Luke Wheadon

Elder is abundant in woods and hedgerows across the British Isles and Guernsey is no different; elderflower is a flavour synonymous with summer and picking these beautiful cream coloured clusters of tiny, fragrant, flowers that bloom from late May through mid-June is many people’s first taste of foraging.  The elderflower in our Floral Festival gin was picked last year and distilled into a liqueur.  Mr Wheadon was visiting an old family friend who lives overlooking St Peter Port last May and spotted masses of elderflower in the field below their house.  Asking if it would be alright to collect some for use in a gin, he was suddenly reminded of a wonderful family connection to that place; in that same field is a well that Luke’s father Nick (who our beautiful copper still Old Nick is named after) used to visit regularly as it was the water source for the brewery that he ran.  Where his dad used to collect water for brewing beer Luke was now, many decades later, collecting elderflowers for his gin.

The elderflower is paired with the sweet flavour from the skin of Guernsey-grown kumquats, raised in the rejuvenated glasshouse where our mandarin limes and lemongrass are also grown by local horticulturalist Joyce Harding.  To complete the floral theme, hibiscus flower and lavender are also included in the mix of botanicals to create a beautiful, summery, flavour profile. 

Wheadon’s limited edition Floral Festival gin will be available throughout June at the Bella Luce Hotel, St Martins, Guernsey, where you can sit back in the Bella’s courtyard garden amongst the flowers and sip this very special, summery, Wheadon’s and tonic.