Yorkshire Day collaboration for world’s best restaurant and start-up distillery

5 years ago

Two Yorkshire-based businesses in the food and drink industry are celebrating a special collaboration this Yorkshire Day.

Michelin-starred restaurant, The Black Swan and Yorkshire’s self-built gin and whisky distillery, Cooper King Distillery, have announced their collaboration in line with Yorkshire Day 2018, which takes place on 1st August.

The distillery, which launched its inaugural product, Cooper King Dry Gin earlier this year, will produce a range of bespoke spirits for The Black Swan, to feature throughout its famous drinks list. The spirits will also be featured at The Black Swan’s new restaurant, Roots York, opening in the centre of York this autumn.

Founded in 2006, The Black Swan, which is described as ‘a reflection of Oldstead, traditional Yorkshire with a swirling mix of creativity and eccentricity’, is celebrating its 12th anniversary this Yorkshire Day.

Following extensive trial distillations, the first of the new spirits went into production on 26th July 2018. Created using flavoursome marigold flowers grown in the Black Swan’s kitchen garden, which are picked, delivered to the distillery and freshly distilled on the same day, the vacuum-distilled spirit has a stunning ‘summer-in-a-glass’ aroma and beautiful floral flavour. More spirits will be distilled as other fruit, flowers and herbs come into season.

Based in Oldstead, North Yorkshire, the restaurant was awarded the ‘Travellers Choice Best Fine Dining Restaurant in the World’ by TripAdvisor in 2017. Talented head-chef Tommy Banks was Britain’s youngest Michelin-starred chef in 2013 and won Great British Menu in both 2016 and 2017.

James Banks, co-owner at The Black Swan commented:

“It has been inspiring to follow Abbie and Chris's journey in setting up Cooper King Distillery. With their infectious enthusiasm and meticulous attention to detail, it is no surprise that they are doing so well.

“These amazing distillates are enabling us to improve clarity, freshness and intensity of flavour to our drinks.”

With an aim to support businesses and increase tourism in the wider Yorkshire region, both The Black Swan and Cooper King Distillery work actively to collaborate with local businesses and have seen many previous creative collaborations with Yorkshire producers.

Based in Sutton-on-the-Forest in North Yorkshire, Cooper King Distillery was established by co-founders Chris Jaume, a chartered architect and Dr Abbie Neilson.

Whilst visiting Australia, Chris and Abbie became fascinated by Tasmania’s eight operational whisky distilleries and the hand-crafted premium whisky industry, which was just starting to take off in this part of the world.

With a mission to bring their discoveries back to England, Chris and Abbie set up a truly independent craft whisky and gin distillery back home in Yorkshire.

Abbie Neilson, co-founder of Cooper King Distillery commented:

“We’re delighted to have partnered with The Black Swan and share in their passion for flavour. It’s fantastic to see that throughout its phenomenal success, the restaurant still remains passionate about collaborating with local, Yorkshire producers.

“We’re very excited to be creating bespoke spirits for The Black Swan, to have the Cooper King name in such an established and reputable restaurant is really a dream come true, but the fact that it is a Yorkshire restaurant that we love makes it that much more special”.

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Issued on behalf of Cooper King Distillery by MacComms. For more information contact Emily on 0113 8695242 or email emily@maccomms.net

About The Black Swan at Oldstead

The restaurant, headed up by Tommy Banks and family, has a very real ‘farm-to-fork’ philosophy and strong focus on innovation and self-reliance. The Banks family opened the Black Swan on 1st August (Yorkshire Day!) 2006. It brings the family, chefs and front-of-house together to work collectively; whether designing and making furniture for the dining room, planting and harvesting on the land or preparing and serving dinner.

Tommy Banks

Born and raised in Oldstead into a family of farmers, Chef Tommy Banks’s passion for food and nature fourished from a young age. Tommy’s family bought The Black Swan just as he fnished school and he started working there, but with no real intention of becoming a chef, but by 2013, at the age of 24, Tommy was awarded a Michelin Star making him the youngest Michelin-starred chef in Britain at the time. The Black Swan also now has four AA Rosettes for the restaurant and AA 5 Stars, Gold Award and Breakfast Award for the rooms. Tommy Banks was a winner on BBC Two’s Great British Menu, in both 2016 and 2017. His debut book ‘Roots’ was published by The Orion Publishing Group in April 2018.

Tommy and The Banks family will be opening their second restaurant 'Roots' in York in the Autumn of 2018.

Accolades and Awards for The Black Swan at Oldstead Restaurant with Rooms:

One Michelin Star | Four AA Rosettes | World’s Best Rated Restaurant Award, Trip Advisor Award | AA 5 Stars | Placed 28th in The Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants | No.20 National Restaurant Awards 2018

For further information on The Black Swan please contact Rachel Smith at press@blackswanoldstead.co.uk or Harriet Child at Gemma Bell and Company at h.child@gemmabellandcompany.com or on 020 7354 0100.

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About Cooper King Distillery

Located in the heart of Yorkshire, Cooper King Distillery is a self-built, family-owned gin and whisky distillery built on the site of a stable. Formed in 2016, by Dr Abbie Neilson, a former scientist and Chris Jaume, a chartered architect, Cooper King Distillery is independent, self-built and powered by 100% green energy. With a desire to leave the rat race, co-founders Chris and Abbie travelled across the globe, in search of sun, sand and adventure. Whilst visiting Australia the pair became fascinated by Tasmania’s eight operational whisky distilleries and the hand-crafted premium whisky industry, which was just starting to take off in this part of the world. With a mission to bring their discoveries back to Britain, Chris and Abbie set up a truly independent craft distillery back home in Sutton-on-the-Forest in North Yorkshire. Taught by Bill Lark, the godfather of Tasmanian whisky, and armed with a wealth of knowledge gathered from across Tasmania’s now internationally acclaimed New World whisky distilleries and beyond, Cooper King Distillery produces authentic premium spirits, using the highest quality ingredients that England has to offer. The distillery’s inaugural product, Cooper King Dry Gin was released in May 2018. Hand distilled using honey from the distillery’s beehives, lemongrass and a touch of locally-grown lavender, the gin has incredible savoury lemongrass flavours, a silky mouthfeel and delicate floral notes. Produced in micro-batches, Cooper King is the first distillery in Yorkshire to combine innovative cold vacuum distillation with traditional hot copper-pot distillation, in a process that’s tailored to suit each individual botanical, ensuring they extract the freshest, fullest flavours. The initial reviews of Cooper King Dry Gin are extremely positive, with The Gin Fayre describing it as a ‘game changer’. The company is the first distillery in Europe to join international environment initiative, 1% for the Planet, which sees 1% of sales of Cooper King Dry Gin contributed towards environmental non-profits. Cooper King Distillery will plant one square metre of native woodland for every bottle sold through a partnership with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. Its initial batch of premium single malt whisky, made using Yorkshire barley, is scheduled to go into production in summer 2018, with a projected release date of 2023. Inspired by Chris’s great-great-grandfather, Charles Cooper King, the name Cooper King has rich historical ties to England and Yorkshire. Born in 1843, Charles, who was Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marine Artillery, traced the Cooper King family history back to 1030, where he identified the Pigot family of Yorkshire, whose shield can still be seen today throughout Ripon Cathedral. The Cooper King Distillery Founders’ Club is offering craft spirit lovers a unique opportunity to become part of the Cooper King family and help make English distilling history. Membership tiers start from £30, which is ideal for a gift, through to more established memberships which include a name engraving on the Founders’ Plaque in the distillery. Memberships also offer first access to rare and collectable whisky in the form of new, special, and small-batch releases, individually-numbered single cask releases from their early casks, plus the chance to own Cooper King Distillery’s Inaugural Release bottle #1. To find out more about Cooper King Distillery, visit http://www.cooperkingdistillery.co.uk/