Natural elements found in cave water helps farm diversify.
Deep in the bowels of the earth at Dan Yr Ogof Showcaves in a section of the cave known as ‘The
Angel’ an all-female Welsh farming family from Cray has been working throughout the summer on a
unique farm diversification scheme.
Naomi Davies spokesperson for the family said:-
“We needed to diversify and after much discussion decided to start a family business that pioneered
new ways in the production of Welsh gin. Then purely by chance on a family visit to the showcaves
we suddenly realised that we had at last found everything that we had been searching for during the
past year.
Firstly, we required the purest of water for our gin, but this water also needed to have been
enriched with the natural minerals from this part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Most
importantly we also wanted the water to contain elements of the natural vegetation found locally
like bilberry, meadowsweet, angelica root and naturally occurring herbs. On analysis, the cave water,
some of which travel 10 miles underground, had everything we had been searching for and would
be ideal for eventually balancing our gin with fresh junipers, the essence of citrus, and our other secret
ingredients!
On contacting the showcases we asked them if they would be willing to supply water from the caves.
We also asked them if they had any other ideas to make our Welsh gin really unique to Wales. The
idea they came up with was so simple but brilliant! Why not ‘mature’ the gin in casks in one of the
showcase passageways?
The area that was finally selected for maturing the gin was where three underground passageways
converge. The natural mixing of air from these different passageways creates a strong air current
which has a constant cool temperature of 10 C. Our gin casks are now being left in these
passageways to mature for 180 days before being removed, and other ingredients are then added.
We have named the gin ’Cascave Premium Dry Gin’ and according to the staff at Dan Yr Ogof the
‘aroma’ that now floats through the cave passageways as the gin matures is now a major talking
point for cave visitors!
