It is not all marmalade sandwiches here although there is more cooking than ever during these Covid times.
Encouraged by my father, Jimmy James, I was admitted to the Freedom in 2000, the same year I joined the army, then became a liveryman in 2009, having just left the army. I was brought up on the Isle of Man and meeting up with my father in London for Cooks events was a highlight for us both. He is less mobile these days and I plan to pick up the baton on my return to the British Isles.
Having retired from the army as a captain I studied for an MBA at London Business School. The well-trodden path of consulting or finance was not for me and I was drawn to the unknown and determined to find my passion. Easier said than done. My wife, Karena, is Peruvian of origin. Her parents left Peru in the 70’s and my father-in-law, a marine construction engineer, happened to have taken on a project building a container port terminal in Lima. I did my internship during my MBA with him, learning some Spanish and working with him.
Peru seemed to be a fascinating country, but could I just set off and start something with a smattering of Spanish? I had had a setback on my last army reconnaissance trip suffering from multiple organ failure and nearly did not pull through having caught an as yet unknown virus in the jungle. I watched the birth of my daughter on skype. I thought my tour in Afghanistan in 2006 was taking enough risk and my illness was one reason, in the end, why I thought the deepest darkest jungle was not the best option for the family. It had taken me a couple of years to convince my wife that she should leave her successful career in finance and that we should move to Peru to start an Agroforestry project in the jungle growing Cacao, softwood and hardwood.
In our container to Peru I brought two copper Alembic stills that I planned to put to use at some point. Distilling was a hobby that became that passion. You have to start somewhere and the laundry room was that place. My father used to make wine in France and the national spirit of Peru is pisco, an unaged brandy. There was a natural connection. Could this be the business that balanced risk and reward with the circumstances I found myself in. A gin based on pisco would fit beautifully with my wife and I – a Peruvian/British couple. In 2014 I spoke to a gin guru in London, called David Smith and we discussed the idea. He said, “Alex, If I had a monocle, it would have fallen off my face.” This gave me the confidence. I sent samples back every six months and eventually arrived at a great recipe.
Scaling it up would be the next challenge and cricket opened the door. Since moving to Peru I had started playing again. Meeting with fellow expats was great fun and playing competitive sport was invigorating. I became treasurer of cricket Peru in 2013, was Vice-Captain of the national side and am now Vice-President. We tour the Americas once or twice a year and are developing the sport with funding from the ICC. The father-in-law of our wicket keeper owned a farm, happened to have been in the Peruvian cavalry and made pisco about an hour from Lima in a 400-litre pot still. He showed me round and he let me start experimenting and we still are there today. Dusting off my mechanical engineering degree I adapted the system.
London to Lima Gin, named after our journey, was born. I buy the grapes locally, ferment and distil pisco. Second phase is redistilling to make the base spirit and then a third distillation with the botanicals. I use five local botanicals, the pink peppercorn, physalis, coriander, Peruvian lime and orange. Juniper I import alongside cassia, angelica and orris roots.
I blend it with Glacial spring water, found with the help of a local guide, that I source with my Land Rover at 4000m. We call this gin the Glacial Adventure. We subsequently made the Andean Adventure, which is a Mulberry and Coca Gin Liqueur; my take on a sloe gin. The mulberries grow on the farm, originally planted for silk worms. We use a local honey and dark brown sugar to sweeten it. The spectacled caiman, modelled on Bill Sykes from Oliver Twist is our character and we won Gold at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London 2020. Our bottles are made by immensely skilled local artisans from recycled glass.
We are about to launch our White Agricole Rum, from fresh pressed cane juice, rather than molasses. I designed and built the cane press. Peru has the highest yield per hectare of sugarcane in the world and I source mine an hour from the distillery from the aptly named province of Canete. I recently finished my last exam for my MSc in brewing and distilling at Heriot Watt University so Whisky is on the cards too. We plan to return to the Isle of Man so my children will have been educated on both sides of the pond. This will mean I can return to Cooks company events after a ten- plus year absence.
Karena and I very much look forward to seeing old and new faces and immersing ourselves back in British culture. With three children and three dogs, there are mouths to feed. The children have not had school for 17months with another year it seems before they start again. Back to the kitchen for me.
If you would like to follow our journey on Instagram or Facebook we are @Londontolima_spirits and our website is www.londontolima.com
