THE GIN PASSPORT ATLAS - DISTILLERY STORY- PINNED ON THE MAP - UK/ EUROPE
CLARKSON'S GINS, Cotswolds, England, UK
Jeremy Clarkson has managed to turn farming into a television series, a farm shop, a pub, a brewery, a cider brand and, inevitably, gin. In fact, there are two Clarkson-associated gins, which is worth knowing before you assume you have simply stumbled across different packaging for the same bottle.
The first came from Diddly Squat Farm and was rather brilliantly called Gin in a Tin. The second arrived under the much bigger Hawkstone name, produced by a completely different distiller and tied into Clarkson’s increasingly ambitious British-farming drinks empire. They are two very different stories, even if they both come with a generous helping of Clarkson branding.
Diddly Squat Farm Gin in a Tin appeared as part of the farm shop’s expanding range and, appropriately enough, arrived in a tin rather than a conventional gin bottle. It was made by Cotswold-based Gin in a Tin, rather than being distilled at Diddly Squat itself, and became one of those products that fitted Clarkson’s particular brand of farming perfectly: take something ordinary, give it a Diddly Squat makeover and see what happens.
There isn't just one recipe either. The current range includes three versions, each built around a different combination of botanicals and flavours. The Maris Otter Malt, Coriander Seed and Fuggles Hops version leans heavily into British brewing and farming, while the Juniper, Beetroot, Apple and Dill gin takes a much more vegetable-garden approach. The Orange Peel, Nutmeg and All Spice version goes in the opposite direction, with a distinctly festive feel.
The hop version is perhaps the most obvious Diddly Squat story of the three. Fuggles is one of those old British hop varieties that has been part of the country's brewing history for generations, while Maris Otter is a famous British malting barley variety. Put them together in a gin associated with a farm and Clarkson's obsession with British agriculture starts to make rather more sense.
The packaging is part of the joke too. A tin is not exactly what you expect to find when somebody says “premium gin”, but that is rather the point. It feels like something that belongs in the Diddly Squat Farm Shop rather than a shiny spirits department, and the Clarkson connection does the rest. The gin has even made appearances around Clarkson's Farm, giving it another advantage that most small-batch gin producers can only dream of: free screen time in one of Britain's most watched farming programmes.
There is also a slightly important distinction here. Diddly Squat Farm Gin in a Tin is not simply “Clarkson's gin” in the sense of him setting up a distillery and making it himself. The liquid is produced by Gin in a Tin, with the Diddly Squat name, recipes and farm-shop story providing the identity.
Gin in a Tin, founded by gin enthusiast Martin Agius and his daughter Charlotte, has its own wider range of gins and has picked up awards for some of those products, so we can reliably assume that the gin is good (despite what James May might say!).
Then came Hawkstone.
Hawkstone was already established as Clarkson's beer and cider brand, born out of his attempt to turn the produce and problems of farming into something commercially useful. The story began with barley and beer, then expanded into cider and spirits. By 2025, gin had joined the Hawkstone family.
This time the producer is The Wood Brothers, a family of Oxfordshire farmers who became distillers. They are six generations into farming but were first-generation distillers, and their experience predates Hawkstone Gin by several years. Their own spirits have collected awards, including three Gold medals for their Single Estate Vodka at The Vodka Masters in 2018, so this wasn't simply a case of sticking a celebrity name onto whatever happened to be coming out of a still.
Hawkstone Gin is a 40% London Dry made with juniper, rosemary, coriander and elderflower. It also fits neatly into the wider Hawkstone philosophy of using British-grown ingredients wherever possible, with premium wheat and ingredients sourced from British farms forming part of the story. The gin is distilled in a traditional copper still by The Wood Brothers.
The connection with Clarkson's farming operation is therefore rather different from the Diddly Squat tin. This is not really a novelty farm-shop gin. It is part of the same commercial drinks machine that has turned Hawkstone into a much bigger brand, with Clarkson, farming and British ingredients providing the narrative that ties the products together.
Even the name Hawkstone has a little local history behind it. Clarkson chose it for the neolithic standing stone in the Cotswolds, linking the brand back to the landscape around him and, rather conveniently, to the ancient history of farming in the area. It is a much more polished piece of branding than Diddly Squat, but the basic idea is similar: make the bottle tell you where it belongs.
There is an interesting little footnote to the two gins. Hawkstone Gin picked up a Silver medal at the 2026 World Gin Awards in the London Dry category, which means that while Clarkson's name may be what gets people to pick up the bottle, there is some independent recognition for what is actually inside it too.
So which is the “real” Clarkson gin? Technically, that depends what you mean. The Diddly Squat Farm Gin in a Tin is the more direct farm-shop expression, wrapped up in the deliberately scruffy world of Clarkson's farm. Hawkstone is the more developed spirits brand, produced by an established distilling operation and sitting alongside the beer and cider business.
"From Diddly Squat wheat to a very Cotswold gin."
Show me a bottle and
I'll tell you a story.
