Portobello Gin Legendary Mark Knopfler
Portobello Gin Legendary Mark Knopfler
The Local Heroes collection is an occasional release of very limited edition gins created in collaboration with some of our own personal heroes and people whom we feel best embody the spirit of Portobello Road.
We are delighted to announce the third installment in this collection is with none other than the legendary Mark Knopfler, frontman of the Dire Straits and one of the world’s best guitarists.
Mark – who is a passionate gin fan and former Notting Hill local – worked with Portobello Road Gin’s co-founder, Jake F. Burger to create Local Heroes No.3, which is a bold gin that combines Portobello Road Gin’s nine signature botanicals with lime zest, fresh cucumber peel and olive oil. The unique combination of botanicals results in a robustly ginny profile with strong spice flavour and heat which are quickly tempered by the coolness of cucumber. It has a soft, full, creamy mouth feel.
Each of the limited edition, artisan bottles made will be distilled on Portobello Road in their 400L copper alembic still ‘King Henry, then bottled and labelled by hand. The bottle’s decorative label design, which was designed by creative agency Analogue alongside Mark, is inspired by the Dire Straits frontman’s passion for guitars. On the inside label of each bottle there is an image of Mark’s famous 1937 14-fret National Style “O” Resonator. There is also a nod to the days when Mark would sport a headband for his live performances, so each bottle come with its own miniature version in red.
70cl
42% ABV
Mark Knoffler
Po6rtobello Road Gin
Mark Knopfler has launched his own limited edition line of gin, in collaboration with leading, west London-based independent manufacturer Portobello Road.
The drink is the third in the company’s Local Heroes series of bottlings developed with notable public figures and chefs. The association came into being when Knopfler was composing the music for the musical stage version of Local Hero, the 1983 Bill Forsyth film for which he wrote the first of his many soundtracks. The musical is currently running, until early May, at the Lyceum in Edinburgh, with plans under way to bring it to London next year.
Photo courtesy of Portobello Road Gin
Local Heroes No. 3 features Knopfler’s famous 1937 National guitar on the neck of the bottle, as made world-famous when it was featured on the cover of Dire Straits’ 30 million-plus-selling Brothers In Arms album in 1985. In another reference to Knopfler’s days as a rock frontman, the bottle neck also has a small red headband around it. The gin retails at £40 from the Portobello Road website.
Knopfler once lived in Notting Hill, where the gin manufacturer is based, and his spinoff band from Dire Straits in 1990 were named the Notting Hillbillies. He was introduced to Portobello Road by his friend Brett Graham, the celebrated chef at the Ledbury restaurant in Notting Hill, and then visited the gin company and met co-owner Jake Burger.
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“Portobello Road had made some lovely gin for Brett’s restaurant, and they’re a great company,” Knopfler told this writer. “So I went down there, Jake made me a gin and tonic and it knocked my socks off. It was really beautiful and I learned a lot. You can make gin, but if you’re going to make good gin, it’s not as easy as it looks.
“I ended up going down there and doing these tastings. They’re a lovely crowd of people, and I learned a bit more. I thought ‘Nothing’s going to happen’ and then suddenly two bottles came through the door to try. I had another pretty well known gin there, and this just blew it away. I chose one, which was a clear and easy winner.”
The gin combines the company’s signature botanicals with lime zest, cucumber peel and olive oil. A limited run of individually numbered bottles was produced at the company’s own The Distillery on its copper pot gin still, named King Henry. “There’ll probably be a few fans who want to have a bottle just to collect,” says the writer-guitarist. “Coinciding with the musical, it seems like a cool thing to do.”
The project has put Knopfler in mind of a song on his Kill To Get Crimson album of 2007. “I actually did write a song called ‘Madame Geneva’s’ about that sort of Hogarthian time,” he says, “about a balladeer who lived and worked in Covent Garden [in Gin Lane], and you could get ‘Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence.’”
The typically vivid narrative included the lines “Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s/Keepin’ the demons at bay/There’s nothin’ like gin for drownin’ them in/But they’ll always be back on a hangin’ day.”
Portobello Road Gin
Mark Knoffler
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