Some collaborations begin with a shared ingredient. Others begin with a shared way of thinking.
At Patience Distillery, our work centres on seasonal spirits, cold vacuum distillation and the character of ingredients at their best. Based in Kensal Green, London, we create small-batch seasonal spirits and bespoke expressions, working with chefs and restaurants to explore new ways of bringing ingredients from their origins to the glass.
Our collaboration with Aulis London, the intimate chef's table from Simon Rogan MBE in the heart of Soho, began with a shared fascination for ingredients, their provenance and the possibilities that emerge when you give them the attention they deserve.
Working alongside Amine Azil, Beverage Developer at Aulis London, we set out to create something beyond a conventional Martini: a bespoke gin developed specifically for the chef's table, built around ingredients grown or foraged at Our Farm in Cartmel. The ambition was to capture the farm at the height of summer in a spirit: a true expression of the place, its ingredients and a particular moment in the season, brought to the table at Aulis London.
From Soil to Glass
At the heart of the project was a selection of fresh botanicals grown at Our Farm, alongside pineapple weed foraged by the Aulis team.
This is the thinking behind our Soil to Glass philosophy: understanding where ingredients come from, the people who grow or forage them, and how best to capture their individual character. For a seasonal gin, provenance is only the beginning. The challenge is to preserve the qualities that make an ingredient distinctive at a particular moment in the year, and to understand how it can contribute to the character of the final spirit.
Pineapple weed became a defining ingredient in the creation. Foraged at its summer peak, it brings an unusual duality of sweet, tropical pineapple notes and the softer, herbaceous character of chamomile. Its complexity offered both an opportunity and a challenge: how to preserve its freshness and distinctive aroma without overwhelming the other ingredients.
Rather than treating the botanicals as one simple blend, we approached each individually. Using our cold vacuum distillation process, each botanical was distilled under its own carefully controlled conditions, allowing us to explore its character and find the most expressive way to capture it.
What followed was a process of more than 100 trials. We experimented with different temperatures, pressures and distillation cut points for each botanical, refining every component to find the right balance and extract its most expressive character.
Over time, this process also creates something we find particularly valuable: an archive of ingredients at their best. By distilling and tasting individual botanicals at their seasonal peak, we can preserve their aromatic profiles in a form that allows us to revisit, compare and understand them throughout the year. Each becomes a reference point, helping us explore how ingredients behave, how they work together and what they can bring to a future expression.
The result was a bespoke gin with a distinctly floral profile, created specifically for a Martini on Aulis London's summer tasting menu. It followed the principles behind our seasonal gins, but went a step further: rather than capturing the feeling of summer alone, it sought to capture a particular place at a particular moment, using the ingredients of the farm itself. The aim was to bring that specific corner of the landscape to the glass.
The making of a Martini
We wanted the Martini to offer a way of experiencing the farm at the height of summer, long after the ingredients had been picked. Served at Aulis London, it would bring the character of the farm to the table in a form that was both familiar and unexpected: a classic Martini, shaped by the place from which its ingredients came.
The final recipe brings together our bespoke gin, dry vermouth and fino sherry, lifted by elderflower and pineapple weed hydrosols. These aromatic distillates carry the more delicate floral and fresh notes of the ingredients into the finished drink, adding a further dimension to the gin itself.
Temperature plays an important role in how the Martini is experienced. Served straight from the freezer, its aromatic top notes are initially restrained. As the drink gradually warms in the guest's hand, the hydrosols begin to open up, revealing more of their fragrance and changing the balance of aromas perceived in the glass.
The Martini is designed to evolve. What the guest smells and tastes in the first moments is not quite what they encounter a few minutes later. The transition from cold and restrained to more expressive and aromatic is part of the experience itself: a drink that slowly reveals the character of the ingredients, just as the farm changes through the season.
Bottled at 31% ABV and designed to be served straight from the freezer, the Martini arrives ready to pour. As the glass warms in the guest's hand, the aromas develop and the drink becomes more expressive. It is a way of allowing the ingredients to reveal themselves over time, rather than presenting a fixed flavour from the first sip to the last.
Botanical Editions No. 1
We see this Martini as the first edition in a series we are calling Aulis Botanical Editions.
This first edition captures Our Farm at the height of summer, working with ingredients at their seasonal peak to create a gin that reflects both the character of the landscape and the moment in which it was made. We hope this will be the first of further explorations, offering a new way to discover the ingredients and character of the farm.
For us at Patience, this is where seasonal gin and bespoke gin creation meet. Both begin with provenance and the character of individual ingredients; both rely on a considered approach to distillation and blending. Our seasonal gins explore the changing character of the year, while bespoke creations allow us to work with chefs and restaurants to capture a particular ingredient, place or culinary vision in a spirit of their own.
Working closely with the people who grow, forage and cook with ingredients allows us to discover new possibilities, while staying true to their origins. It is an approach built on curiosity, precision and a belief that the best expressions begin long before distillation.
The Aulis Martini is one expression of that idea: a particular moment at Our Farm, captured through cold distillation and brought from Soil to Glass.