Lilliput Dorset Gin

Lilliput Dorset Gin was distilled with pride in Dorset, starting with a very old fashioned London Dry Gin recipe and then adding Lilliput home-grown organic Rosemary, organic Basil from Egypt, organic Thyme from Spain and organic fresh water fermented Kalamata Olives from Greece. It was this combination of tastes and aromas that evoked the feeling of being by the coast and best captured a desire to escape to the Dorset coastline - that was Lilliput Gin.  

2017 was a big year for award winning gin. It was also the year that Andy, his Mum and Sister decided to see if they could launch an award winning gin, by the end of 2017 they had created a multi-award winning product and brand that is still sought after today by loyal customers and gin collectors world wide. 

Lilliput Gin stopped production at the end of October 2018 and will return in Summer 2021. 

How it all started

Lilliput Dorset Gin emerged from a desire to create a product that captured the invigorating spirit of summer on the Dorset coast, escaping from the daily dramas of life back to something just a little more real, the simpler, refreshing and timeless beauty of life on the Jurassic coastline of Dorset. When it all started in January 2017 it was very much an experiment, with no idea if it would work, if it could launch or indeed if it would become business or just a project, and like all great experiments failure was always a very real option. 


The spirit and values behind the brand


Everything that was done with Lilliput Dorset Gin, including the way of working together with suppliers, customers and partners was about bringing the invigorating spirit of summer on the Dorset coast to life with an emphasis on Quality, Clarity and Escape. With a strong belief in equality and collaboration, in supporting small businesses, entrepreneurs, promoting ideas and innovation in the drinks industry and beyond.  


Distilled with pride in Dorset


Lilliput Dorset Gin was distilled with pride in Dorset at a micro distillery in Lilliput an area of Poole, from home-grown organic Rosemary, organic Basil from Egypt, organic Thyme from Spain and organic fresh water fermented Kalamata Olives from Greece. It was this combination of tastes and aromas that evoked the feeling of being by the coast and best captured the desire to escape to the beautiful Dorset coastline. 


Bringing Lilliput Dorset Gin to life


Rosemary, basil, thyme and olives were all infused separately in grain spirit to ensure each of their individual distinctive flavours and aromas were captured, then these separate infusions were combined together with a unique blend of botanicals including the most predominant, beautiful wild foraged Juniper from the mountains above Sarajevo in Bosnia. 


Finally, the most exciting part of the process, distilling Lilliput Dorset Gin in beautiful traditional copper pot stills. The production processes was quite traditional and small scale, helping the team to perfect the art of distilling the most beautiful products. 


The perfect serve


Lilliput Dorset Gin has always been best served in a large copa de ballon glass filled with fresh water ice, gently blended with a premium light tonic, garnished with a large sprig of fresh rosemary, a wedge of lime, a Kalamata Olive and finished off with the fresh spray of lime squeezed over the top of the glass.


Customers are always passionate about the right tonic, a light premium tonics work best with Lilliput Dorset Gin. The recommendation was Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic as it emphasis beautifully our Rosemary, Basil, Thyme and Olives.

Fantastical stories

We picked up lots of exciting stories about what happened to Lilliput Gin and why we stopped production, most of them far more exciting than reality, we like the one about being taken over by Global Brands just to stop the competition with Gin Mare, but alas that wasn't true.


The slightly boring reality was that I, Andy, the founder also have a day job at PwC, as you'll have seen from this site, and my day job got so much busier after being asked to take on the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer role for our UK firm. I simply didn't have the time to get down to Poole every week and work with my Mum and my Sister to make gin. I also went through a rather messy separation from Rodolfo, he was my partner and you'll see him in lots of the Lilliput Gin social media, I've decided not to edit him out of the history, although was tempted a few times.


So, I stopped distilling and then shortly after our licence needed to be resubmitted to include our new VAT status, and it all seemed like too much to do on top of my new day job, I continued to be too busy up in London, we'd apparently run out of stock, I needed to redo the licence submission and I was now single in London (woohoo!) and not in a position to keep it all moving in Poole. 


The Gin thing was always a project for me, an experiment, an experience, I was as surprised as others when it all went crazy, when we won all the awards and when everyone wanted to drink my gin. And now,  after almost two years of no production, people still ask me for Lilliput Gin. 

The next adventure

Lilliput Gin is set to return in Summer 2021. 

Find out more at Lilliput-Gin.com

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