The Chase is over
posted 30th January 2025
William Chase and Distiller Jamie Baggot in 2013
Small is beautiful is an oft heard adage, and nowhere is this more so than in the world of drinks production. Without doubt some of the most individual and highest quality wines and spirits are made with passion, dedication and the utmost care by small, artisan producers. Just 'what' a small producer is, however, is perhaps not easy to define.
Of course, creating a top quality Cognac house takes decades, even centuries, for mature spirit components of impeccable pedigree are at the heart of quality. Indeed at Tesseron they speak of their finest components in terms of 'generations'. The complexity and thrill of a Grande Champagne XO Cognac from Tesseron, or Frapin, is never surpassed, or even equalled by any product from the 'Big Four': Hennessy, Remy Martin, Martell, or Courvoisier. Frapin, owned by the Cointreau family, has a history of vine growing and distilling that goes back to 1270. At the World Cognac Awards 2024, 'Trilogie' from Frapin was awarded "World's Best Cognac."
On the other hand becoming an artisan producer of distinctive gins or vodkas can be achieved relatively quickly, but certainly not easily. In the early years of this century several dynamic, forward thinking and talented people spearheaded a revolution in high quality gin production. At the end of the 20th Century gin was well and truly in the doldrums. It was regarded as the spirit that your grandmother used to drink, and all the production was in the hands of a handful of companies. Looking at the UK market, Gordons, owned by Diageo, was by far the best selling brand, with Beefeater (Pernod Ricard), and Tanqueray (Diageo) trailing some way behind. Hendricks, family owned by William Grant, and Bombay Sapphire, owned by Bacardi, perhaps added a hint of variety for the consumer.
Then, in 2008 Herefordshire potato grower and merchant William Chase founded the first ever single estate distillery to open In the United Kingdom, and the most wonderful vodkas and gins were soon being produced. William's is a story of rags to riches to rags to riches, and I talk about this below. In 2009, Sam Galsworthy, Fairfax Hall and Jared Brown founded Sipsmith, the first copper still distillery to open in London in 200 years. Almost in the blink of an eye, gin became trendy again. In 2010 Adnams launched their delicious Copper House gin. Then in 2014 New Yorker Dan Szor created Cotswold Gin, a major diversion on his pathway to creating and maturing the first fine malt whisky to be produced in England. In the second decade of this century literally hundreds of new micro and mini distilleries opened. And, taking advantage of the pioneering spirit of these creators, the conglomerates launched their so-called craft gins and vodkas.
Sam Galsworthy at Sipsmith
Now launching a brand is one thing; maintaining and growing it is something else, and making real money from it is ultra-hard, so it is understandable that in 2016 the founding trio of Sipsmith sold out to the behemoth Suntory, owners of Jim Beam and scores of other drinks brands.
Any, and every, consumer knows that dealing with conglomerates can be an absolute nightmare. The response to a telephone call is endless long minutes of "we are experiencing a high level of calls at the moment," "your call is important to us", "the answers to your questions are on our website", and after 60 minutes the line goes dead. An email question or complaint is responded, if at all, with a cut and paste that does not answer the issue raised, and is today often composed by AI, or anyone who is remotely connected to product production. Contrast this with with hearing a human voice who is or has been "hands on" and knows the product personally, it is the cheapest, easiest way to create brand confidence and provide individual customer service.
The best independent producers put their heart and soul into their product, and nurture the relationship with their customers. Perhaps key to this is that the staff feel valued, and that they have ownership of the business. When I talk to employees of conglomerates, they often live in fear of the next directive from HR, the next diktat detailing new policies that usually have nothing to do with making a better product, increasing customer and staff satisfaction or achieving higher profitability. Virtue signalling is rife, DEI rules and nobody dare break out of the bubble.
Of course, it is the big producers who have the lion's share of space on most supermarket shelves. They're the only ones who can afford to pay the listing allowances, premiums for gondola ends, retrospective discounts and other fees demanded by the big supermarkets. They're the only ones who can subsidise the promotional offers. And they rule the roost. They have over 80% of the total retail market for wines and spirits. Tim Martin of Wetherspoons notes that pubs have lost over half of their beer trade to supermarkets since 1979. However, watching the waves that were being made by independent outlets, Waitrose in particular did give shelf space to the pioneering artisan producers of gin and vodka, including Chase Distillery, as discussed below.
So what was special about Chase Distillery?
Chase potato gin and vodka were made from potatoes grown on the farm in Herefordshire. The delightfully fresh and elegant apple gin was made with fruit from the local orchard . The mashing took place on the farm. The fermentation took place in the distillery at the farm. The alcohol stripping took place at the distillery. This is unlike most of the artisan gin producers who actually buy in raw spirit and re-distill it in a copper still with botanicals. NB Adnams also undertake alcohol stripping on site.
The copper still distillation for the gins at Chase was with largely home grown botanicals. A wonderful marmalade vodka was developed and the oranges (which were brought in) marmalised at the distillery. William told me what a nightmare messy process this was, although he was used to messiness having worked on the mash for potato vodka and gin.
The bottling took place at the distillery too, using small, manual fillers - the same type as used in the winery and distillery in Northern Cyprus that I consult for. Home grown, and hand crafted spirits. But not any more. Now be prepared to be heartbroken.
The William Chase Story
At the tender age of 20, William Chase borrowed £200,000 from the bank in order to purchase his father's struggling potato farm. With dedication and hard work the farm had many good harvests, and some poor ones until 1992, which was disastrous due to wet weather. He had struggled and struggled, but in 1992 was declared bankrupt.
I remember 1992 very well: the day after my father died my new manager at Barclays Bank rang me to introduce himself and to say that they were reducing by business's overdraft facility from £57,000 to £25,000 the very next day. In the blink of an eye, I could not write a cheque, and was paying penalty interest at a rate of 27%. William told me he was paying the same rate. So I can guess how he felt when his credit was called in. The farm was lost. A thousand and one lessons were learned in those dark times and he recognised the value of anything and everything. "I know that £5 is a lot of money when you haven’t got it...," he says.
"When you ain't got nothing you've got nothing to lose", sang Bob Dylan, in 'Like a Rolling Stone', perhaps the greatest rock song of all time. These words were certainly the thoughts of William as he pulled himself up by the bootstraps, and with some new finance from 'Angels' he was soon able to buy back some of his farm. As well as producing, he started dealing in potatoes, buying from small growers, and selling to supermarkets. He told me, "the business model was simple, If I could buy at 60 pence and sell at for pound, if I could get paid in a month, and pay my suppliers no later than two months, I couldn't fail." Of course, William had not allowed for the supermarkets flexing their buying muscle, a story I have heard a hundred times over. Mis-shapen potatoes were rejected, and the payments to William went from one month to well over three. And the supermarkets want to cut out the 'middle man'. So he stopped selling potatoes to them. However, found that the makers of Kettle Crisps (chips) were prepared to buy some of his 'wonky' spuds.
It is now 2002. William has a plethora of potatoes but little market. However, consumer interest in quality foods was on the rise. I well recall the darks days when the crisp market comprised just products from Smiths and Golden Wonder - they were dull and boring. He has the crazy idea of producing hos own 'estate' crisps. Trying to learn how to do this was far from easy, but eventually an Amish community in Pennsylvania taught him the tricks. He borrowed a fryer and, after a few hiccups, production began. The brand he launched was Tyrells, named after his family farm. Having been previously dumped on by the supermarkets, his early sales were though independent outlets and farm shops, who really got behind the brand on account of its high quality. He did get a listing with Waitrose who, at that time saw themselves very much as a licensed grocer rather than a supermarket. The big supermarkets followed.
But again William was dumped on. Tesco, started heavy discounting without his permission. To compound his problems, and partially on account of him being a rising at 4am, and grafting for 18 hours, workaholic his marriage was on the rocks. His wife wanted a divorce and, of course, her share of the value of the business. Needless to say, William did not have these sort of funds. His shares in the business were now valued at £40 million. So he sold a majority stake in Tyrells to a venture capital company, leaving him with some £20 million or so. And the buyers of the business did not want his potatoes - basically just the brand that William had spent years developing. So, newly divorced and without a business he now had £20 million, and a surfeit of potatoes.
Originally a gin drinker, William had been unimpressed by the bog standard vodkas sold in the United Kingdom. But he fell in love with high quality potato vodka on a visit to the Caribbean. He saw there was an opportunity to make an estate vodka of unparalleled quality in rural Herefordshire, from his own potatoes. Put simply, field to bottle spirits, a far cry from the faceless products of the drinks behemoths. He approached a German manufacturer of hybrid stills, Carl, to make his first still, which was delivered in 2007. Unpacked and installed in a converted hop kiln barn by his farmhands, the gleaming copper was inviting its first distillations. Now I know Carl stills very well - I commissioned one for Copper Isle Distillery in Northern Cyprus, for whom I consult. They are oh so versatile. You make make whisky, brandy, zivania, rakki, as well as the mainstays of gin and vodka. There are now hundreds of hybrid stills installed in artisan distilleries all over Britain. However, as William would find out, making vodka from potatoes was a steep learning curve.
Chase vodka and gin benefited from hand selling, often by William himself. He didn't want slick guys in suits making a hard sell - the products were above that.
No doubt over 30 years of the cut and thrust of the businesses, with all the downs and ups, led William to decide to sell Chase Distillery to Diageo in 2021. He would take the money, and could no longer be dumped on. But his legacy could be, and has been. In January of this year Diageo announced that they were in the process of moving Chase Gin and Vodka production away from the distillery in Williams beloved Herefordshire. In fact away to Fife in Scotland, to Diageo's Cameronbridge Distillery. This is a single grain distillery, so who knows what is to happen to the recipes lovingly created by William and his small team. Loyal staff in Herefordshire were made redundant, although some were offered relocation! Using classic corporate speak a Diageo spokesman told 'The Drinks Business', "to future proof Chase, we took the decision to renovate the liquid, revitalise the packaging, and transform the brand supply to drive its efficiency. I have never hear any drinker of high quality gin or vodka, or an craft distiller refer to it as 'the liquid'!
A brand such as Chase, who creates products that adds glitter to the portfolio of conglomerates. I don't have a problem with that. And many fantastic drinks producers thrive under corporate ownership. A shining example would be Château Pichon Baron in Pauillac, owned by the insurance giant AXA. What I do have a huge problem with is when behemoths think that they can standardise and rationalise production processes underneath their heavy, corporate boot, and trash the principles and heritage of the founder.
Perhaps no drinks product has suffered from corporate vandalism more than beer. Marston's bought the Wychwood Brewery in Witney Oxfordshire in 2002. The most distinctive Hobgoblin ales were produced there. Carlsberg Marston's closed Wychwood in November 2023. A spokesman for the company said, "...we can consolidate our brewing network to achieve greater efficiency and productivity....." Carlsberg Marston's had previously closed the Jennings brewery in Cumbria, and sold the Ringwood brewery in Hampshire. There are as hundred and one other instances of production of once great beers being savaged, in the name of convenience and profit. As Dave Richardson of Camra noted, "....most will be able to recall some of the once independent beers that were moved away following a take-over, with many saying they taste nothing like the original. "
The history of Diageo's performance at Chase since their acquisition in 2001 is far from good. According to figures filed at Companies House, turnover that had been £11.7m in 2020, was only £5.3m in the year to 30 June 2024. Incredibly, this is despite an increase in production. In other words, the products have been devalued. No doubt Diageo will need to advertise and promote heavily in an attempt to reinvigorate the brands., The money for this has to be found, and this may well come from the ingredients bill, and further 'efficiencies' being made. Individuality and quality will fall.
In any meaningful sense, the Chase is over.
To end on a positive note, William Chase does still own a vineyard in Provence. He is also founder of Willy's probiotic live foods,