The restorative qualities of a great martini

It was a perfect setting for a spring day, next to a 15th-century barn. Other walls and buildings had clearly recycled ancient masonry over the centuries. This was in Kent. Though not that far from Ashford station, it was a garden deep in the garden of England: l’Angleterre profonde. There are excellent local pubs, with absolutely no pop music, but proper hoppy beer as well as proper dogs, looking forward to the shooting season.

There was also modernity, in the shape of the Pleasant Land distillery, which has the most up-to-date impressive-looking German kit. Vorsprung Durch Technik also applies to pot stills. The fellow who inspired all this is Sebastian Barnick. After six happy and successful years in the navy, he was diagnosed with a marginal case of colour-blindness which would have debarred him from the most interesting aspects of seaboard life. So what to do for a new career? Obvious: turn to drink.

During his nautical career, Sebastian had been able to travel a great deal and sample the local grog, including coconut wine in the Seychelles, celebrating a successful mission to suppress piracy. After leaving the navy, he went on a pilgrimage to serious vineyards. He is eloquent on the subject, especially when discussing South Africa, Austria and the Rhineland. Indeed, he will sound almost mystical. ‘Taking agricultural products and immortalising them through man’s mastery of fire’ – that is his philosophy.

Sebastian was entranced and moved by the experience of sailing ships through the world’s oceans. To enjoy all that, the navy depends on professionalism. The same is true of wine-making, and of distilling. Sebastian found himself increasingly drawn to the creation of spirits, partly because he was also enthusiastic about living in Kent and supplying the modern equivalent of the navy’s wardrooms with what is now more likely to be gin than rum.