FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 30 OF 80
PIONEER PREMIUM GIN, Italy
(inspired by Antarctic Explorers)
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
An Antarctic explorer, an Irish great-uncle, a British-owned gin and an Italian distillery...
I am continuing my virtual journey south through Argentina, but where I'm headed has no cities, no capital, no native population, no countries and is pretty inhospitable. But does it have gin?
Technically not! And although there are a few plants and seaweed about which could possibly be used as local botanicals, Antarctica is governed through the Antarctic Treaty System and has some of the strongest environmental protections on the planet, so no gin-making for us!
However, I do have a gin in my collection inspired by and honouring a legendary explorer, Tom Crean, and I therefore think that counts. I promised this was a world tour, so I'm ticking another continent off — Antarctica! 🧊
Now, whilst tourism is actually booming in Antarctica, it's somewhere most of us are unlikely to visit. Fares can easily run into five figures and the more adventurous trips can head well into £30k territory! It's a complicated place to get to!
So how did Tom get there?
It was 1901 and Tom was in Christchurch, New Zealand. As fortune would have it, he found himself a last-minute job on Discovery, which had docked there for supplies, and joined Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his 1901–04 expedition to Antarctica.
When Scott returned in 1910 on Terra Nova, Tom went with him again. It was an expedition fraught with problems and near disasters, even before they reached Antarctica, and the race was on to reach the Pole before the Norwegian party.
With a mixture of motors, dogs, ponies and loaded sledges, Scott and his party headed south, with the supporting teams breaking off and returning as the journey progressed.
Tom didn't make the final cut of five for the Pole. He and two others set off back towards Base Camp.
Scott's team did reach the Pole, arriving on 17 January 1912 — only to discover that Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team had beaten them there by more than a month.
And then came the journey back.
Scott and the four men with him perished after running out of supplies and being unable to reach the depots they needed.
Tom's return wasn't exactly a stroll in the park either. One of his group, Lieutenant Edward Evans, was suffering badly from scurvy and eventually collapsed. Tom and Bill Lashly hauled him on a sledge until they were around 35 miles from safety.
Tom then set off alone across the Ross Ice Shelf to get help.
He covered those 35 miles in around 18 hours, with virtually no food, and saved Evans' life.
His bravery and endurance earned him the Albert Medal.And if that wasn't enough, Tom returned to Antarctica for a third and final time in 1914, this time with Ernest Shackleton aboard Endurance.
Except they never actually made it to Antarctica.
Endurance became trapped in the pack ice and eventually sank, leaving the crew stranded on the ice and later Elephant Island. After months of survival, Tom and a small crew set off in the tiny lifeboat James Caird on an 800-nautical-mile journey to South Georgia to seek help.
They made it.
Then Tom, Shackleton and Frank Worsley crossed the island on foot to reach the whaling station and raise the alarm.
Honestly, if someone wrote this as a screenplay, you'd probably think it was a bit far-fetched. 😂
Tom Crean is the great-uncle of Sean Crean, founder of Pioneer Gin. Sean is a self-employed conveyancing solicitor and lifelong gin fan who wanted not only to honour his great-uncle, but also to bring his vision of what a gin should be to life.
The gin was made with the aid of Casoni, a historic Italian distillery in Finale Emilia, near Modena. Lots of juniper, with mountain pine right up front. Then comes sweetness from orange and rosehip, with pink pepper giving it a little punch towards the finish.
And the combination of botanicals smells incredible. But are any of them a nod to Tom's Antarctic adventures?
There's no reference to this, but here's where I start joining dots...
When Scott and his men were discovered in November 1912, around 16kg of rocks were found with them, including fossil leaves of Glossopteris. These fossils helped prove that Antarctica had once been much warmer and had been part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
Glossopteris formed vast high-latitude forests, with trees that could reach impressive heights.
So, maybe, just maybe, there's a reason for mountain pine making its way into the botanical lineup. Or maybe I'm just looking for connections that aren't there.
The label shows the route of one of the expeditions and a photo of Tom, whilst the coordinates on the stopper are for Crean Glacier, named after Tom and found on South Georgia along the route connected with the extraordinary 1916 rescue journey.
"Antarctica, gin, giant fossil forests, the WWF and Nessie."
I've served up the recommended Negroni — no faffing with this one — 1:1:1 is perfect.
One last little tidbit.
Nothing to do with gin, but worth mentioning in the context of storytelling.
Peter Scott, the only son of Robert Falcon Scott, helped found the WWF in 1961 and created its famous panda logo.
And apparently Antarctica wasn't the only mystery that caught his attention...
He also co-founded the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau.
Antarctica, gin, giant fossil forests, the WWF and Nessie.
Quite the journey for one bottle.
But that's a story for another day! 🦕
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."