A glass of gin may be something most people enjoy in a pub.

But for Deke and Claire Robinson-Learoyd it is the thing that dominates their daily working life. They share their house with four stills, the biggest of which is capable of producing 60 litres of the stuff.

Deke, 41 and Claire, 38, own the Tarbay Botanist distillery in Tarbay Lane, Oakley Green just outside Windsor.

They work from home. But the premises are licensed and they produce three varieties of artisan craft gin there.

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There is the core Windsor gin, the Country Garden batch with flavours of quince, elderflower and lemon and the Fireside batch with flavours of tangerine, cinnamon and spice. Many of the ingredients are grown in their garden.

"There was a lot of trial and error when we started and a lot of rejected batches," said Claire.

"In the hot weather we had a lot of exploding batches when the liquid expanded and the corks popped out."

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But the couple have produced seven batches of 80 to 100 bottles this year and been awarded the bronze award for best gin in the International Wine and Spirits competition after submitting one of their efforts.

The couple have been married six years and have a one-year-old son Rafferty. One of the stills is named in his honour.

Deke's works as an estates manager when he is not at the distillery and Claire worked for Laithwaites before they decided to go into business on their own.

She said: "We spotted a gap in the market as there were no distilleries round here so we decided to fill it."

The Covid-19 crisis has inevitably affected business.

Claire said: "Pubs are reluctant to commit when they do not know what is going to happen but we have built up a lot of individual customers."

The website link is www.thetarbaybotanist.com

@gmail.com>