The new Hendrick’s gin is coming. Be the first to celebrate the launch of Hendrick’s Lunar Gin with an enchanted multisensory moonlight experience at Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge.

Guests will be transported to a twilight garden tucked up on the Fifth Floor and enjoy Lunar Gin cocktails infused with botanicals.

Not content with already giving the world the moon on a stick, Hendrick’s has now captured it in a bottle of gin.

Many moons ago, Hendrick’s released the floral and fleeting Midsummer Solstice. The highly anticipated follow up in their Limited Release series is Lunar Gin – a late-night affair for star gazing and sipping into the wee hours.

Flanking the entrance to the Hendrick’s Gin Palace are a pair of hothouses: a tropical one filled with pineapples, nostril-tickling pepper and exotic flowers; and a Mediterranean one where passion flowers explode and branches sag beneath the weight of citrus. One moonlit evening, Master Distiller Lesley Gracie was tending her botanicals in these very greenhouses, when she found herself inspired by the dazzling clarity of the moon and evening’s warmth, which was percolating the night-scented florals, citrus oils and exotic spices. So, she immediately ran back up to her “Cabinet of Curiosities” – the name lovingly given to the cupboard of essences, herbs and spices in the laboratory where she weaves her botanical alchemy – and created the rich and deeply nocturnal Lunar Gin. A stellar combination with ginger ale, cucumber and a twist of lemon (a “Lunar Buck”), or simply with premium tonic, a slice of cucumber and a few grinds of black pepper (the “Lunar and tonic”). Released exclusively through Harvey Nichols, gins like this only come around once in a blue moon.

Many experts credit the original Hendrick’s with sparking gin’s phenomenal resurgence. It rocketed into pole position and became one of the best-selling gin brands in the world. As the avalanche of new gins and distilleries has continued to snowball, the originator has come back with a bang. Hendrick’s has received a rumoured £13 million of investment in their glorious and otherworldly Gin Palace. With its stained-glass dome, towering black walls, gleaming copper stills, walled garden and greenhouses, it feels part Willy Wonka, part gothic dinner party and just a little bit like a Victorian orangery kitted out by the set designers from Mad Men. From this stunning abode, an equally stunning procession of gins have begun to appear.

Hendrick’s is handcrafted in tiny batches in the similarly minuscule Scottish coastal town of Girvan by just a handful of very dedicated and wonderfully eccentric people. They use a carefully curated selection of botanicals and two types of still: a Bennett Still that steeps the botanicals to create an intense and robust spirit, and a rare Carter-Head Still that steams the botanicals to create a lighter more fragrant spirit. These two spirits are then married together and infused with Hendrick’s magical touches.

Hendrick’s Lunar Limited Release Gin £47

Country: Scotland
Alcohol by volume (ABV): 43.4%
Volume: 700ml