Alchemy

CGDC Founder Matthew Clifford is a man who has worn many hats during his varied career. He has been and is a sailor and was an offshore captain and search and rescue helicopter pilot.  He has also created and launched an award-winning gin. 

In the summer of 2016 Matt and his wife Alex were in Edinburgh to attend a birthday party.  They were in a basement bar called Spitfire and Alex introduced Matt to two friends of hers.  Drinks were definitely required, and Alex’s friends suggested Pickering’s gin, a locally distilled gin.  Matt thoroughly enjoyed his drink and then discovered that he was drinking with the founders of Pickering’s gin – Matt Gammell and Marcus Pickering.

Matt had never met anyone who made their own spirits and was fascinated. He was aware of the success of Sipsmith and the Gin boom and he went away and thought about it for a year, researching the market looking for an opportunity. Eventually he wrote a business case after spotting an opportunity to create bespoke spirits for existing brands, rather than launching their own brand.

Struggling to find investors to help him put a small 50 litre still in our old stable and employ a distiller, he decided to create a demonstration gin, showing what a collaborative approach could create for potential customers. When researching his gin Matt discovered the legendary Master Distiller and drinks historian Jared Brown, and his masterwork on the history of drink: A Spirituous Journey. Matt greatly admired Jared’s passion for reviving old cocktail recipes, and his uncompromising stance on quality and perfection. 

Twelve Keys Gin takes its name from the early alchemical text the 12 Keys of Basil Valentine – a secret collaborative text by a group of alchemists working together under the pseudonym of Basil Valentine (a fictious character) to avoid detection persecution by the Church. The 1599 book contains twelve keys (or steps) showing the process of turning base metals into precious ones, the Philosopher’s Stone. Alchemists also believed that an elixir of life could be derived from it. Influenced by the early alchemists who believed in the importance of slow, systematic experimentation, it was a true journey of discovery that brought the unexpected at every step. Matt and his team unravelled the alchemic process of making spirits to produce a sample with a modern flavour-forward profile, designed for drinking neat. Fresh and enticing; a Gin for all seasons; a perfect balance of 12 botanicals that surprised and delighted in equal measure, it was simply too good not to share.

And so 2018 Matt brought Twelve Keys Gin to the Market. He sold £110K of gin in the first six months of trading, securing premium off-trade listings (Harvey Nichols) and premium on-trade listings (Savage Garden, Hilton).  Twelve Keys Gin was featured on Channel 4’s Sunday brunch and in both the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times.  In 2019 Twelve Keys Gin was awarded a prestigious Silver Medal at the International Spirits Challenge. Twelve Keys has led to some amazing collaborations, especially with the Gin Foundry team, and Fairfax & Favor with our Twelve Keys cocktail bar and taken Matt and Alex to some amazing events around the UK and Europe, where they have met all sorts of wonderful people and shared their common interests. 

Twelve Keys is infused with wildflower honey harvested from Matt’s very own hives in Norfolk. The organic honey is simply sublime, created by nature’s alchemists who buzz from flower to flower collecting pollen from our pesticide-free wildflower meadow. 

From the tiniest of insects to huge bumblebees, from butterflies to birds and field mice, Matt’s meadow has seen an increase in a wide range of wildlife. Keen to create a sustainable environment for them to thrive, he manages the land traditionally to encourage habitat diversity. In late July the hay cut is done one patch at a time by traditional hand scything, allowing pollinators and wildlife time to move on. 

Matt’s passion for his projects shines through in his attention to detail and commitment to excellence. The Cornish Geothermal Distillery sprang into life on a train journey, sending Matt on this new and exciting odyssey combining the CGDC’s absolute passion for rum with much-needed investment and quality full-time jobs in this part of Cornwall. This pioneering project aims to regenerate a lost landscape and make it sustainable through a combination of creative, social, environmental and economic approaches.  The Twelve Keys alchemy is very much at the heart of what we want to achieve.