7 Best… Coastal Christmas Drinks

Add a seasidey flavour to the festive season with the finest hand-crafted beers, spirits and wines produced around our shores. Words: Alex Reece

1. FOR NAVAL-STRENGTH GIN

Plymouth Gin, Plymouth, Devon

The Black Friars Distillery where Plymouth Gin is made is the oldest working distillery in England. The building, a former monastery, dates back to the 1400s, while gin production began here in 1793. ‘The process hasn’t really changed since then,’ says global brand ambassador Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge. The spirit, which has a long association with the Royal Navy, is a blend of seven botanicals, soft Dartmoor water and pure grain alcohol. Especially warming at this time of year is Plymouth Sloe Gin (plymouthgin.com).

2. FOR CORNISH FIZZ

Camel Valley, Nanstallon, Cornwall

Just a mile inland from the Camel Estuary, this family-run vineyard, established in 1989, has been one of the pioneers in changing once negative perceptions of English wine. At this year’s International Wine Challenge alone, Camel Valley won two gold medals and a trophy for its sparkling 2012 Camel Valley Pinot Noir Rosé brut and the 2009 Chardonnay brut. Head winemaker Sam Lindo describes the wine as having a uniquely English character: ‘The grapes are on the vine 30 to 40 days longer than they would be in the rest of Europe,’ he says (camelvalley.com).

3. FOR OYSTER STOUT & CHRISTMAS ALE

The Faversham Steam Brewery/Shepherd Neame, Faversham, Kent

This family-run brewery on the North Kent coast is the oldest in Britain (founded in 1698) and its beers are made with chalk-filtered water from an artisan well below the brewery, along with the finest malting barley and Kentish hops. The latest addition to the brewery’s Whitstable Bay Collection, styled after the nearby seaside town, is Black Oyster Stout – a perfect partner to shellfish if you’re eating out over the holiday season. For celebrating at home, buy in a few bottles of the newly launched Christmas Ale, an amber bitter with a fruity nose, very much in keeping with traditional festive fare (shepherdneame.co.uk).

4. FOR IRISH WHISKEY

Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Bushmills, Co Antrim

The oldest working distillery in Ireland (since 1608), Bushmills is based on the Antrim coast, just three miles from the Giant’s Causeway. With such a long and illustrious history, it’s perhaps no surprise that the whiskey has been name-checked in numerous works of literature, including those of James Joyce and Seamus Heaney. The trademark taste of Bushmills, which is hand-crafted in small batches using unpeated malted barley, is sweeter and more honey-toned than the peat-flavoured whiskies. It therefore lends itself well to soothing hot toddies (simply add hot water, honey, cloves and a slice of lemon). The 10-, 16- or 21-year-old malts, matured in bourbon and sherry casks, are, of course, best savoured neat (bushmills.com).

5. FOR CRAFT BEER

Wold Top Brewery, Hunmanby, North Yorkshire

The Yorkshire coast provides the inspiration for this much-lauded microbrewery, as reflected in its signature brews Headland Red and Scarborough Fair IPA. The beer itself – produced since 2003 by Tom and Gill Mellor on a fourth-generation family farm near Filey, ‘where the hills roll down to the North Sea,’ says Gill – provides a taste of the local landscape, as it’s made using home- and Wolds-grown malting barley, and chalk-filtered water from the farm’s own borehole. Wold Top bitter and Wold Gold are the flagship beers to look out for, but the brewery also produces seasonal specials, such as Shepherd’s Watch, a rich, dark ale for Christmas (woldtopbrewery.co.uk).

6. FOR HOLY ISLAND MEAD

St Aidan’s Winery, Lindisfarne, Northumberland

Following a tradition established by monks on this tidal island during the Middle Ages, St Aidan’s Winery has been producing mead on Lindisfarne since 1962. The fortified wine is made using honey, fermented grape juice, spices and locally drawn water. This Christmas you really must try their Spiced Mead which, when warmed, is a wonderful Christmas mulled typed of drink. Released just last year it quickly gained popularity and is one not to miss (lindisfarne-mead.co.uk).

7. FOR ARTISAN CIDER

Thistly Cross Cider, Nr Dunbar, East Lothian

Born out of a collaboration between farmer Ian Rennie and artist-turned-cider maker Peter Stuart, this award-winning product is hand-made in a cider shed on a farm near the seaside town of Dunbar. The mild coastal climate is ideal for fruit-growing – all the better for the Scottish apples and strawberries that go into their innovative varieties of cider, which range from Original and Traditional to Strawberry and Elderflower. For Yuletide drinking, Peter recommends their blended Mulled Cider or the Whisky Cask Cider, which is aged in an oak Glen Moray cask for added flavour. ‘It’s very often matured for 6 months or more for real depth of flavour’ he says (thistlycrosscider.co.uk).