THOSE who know me well would probably not be surprised to hear that I celebrated my birthday weekend recently with a trip to a distillery!

The charismatic Chloe led a group of us around Chase Distillery, which is based just four miles outside Hereford.

We learned about the secrets and skills that go into creating their award-winning range of vodkas and gins – everything from the traditional mashing, fermenting and distilling processes, to how the bottles are finished by hand.

Outside you can see the potato fields and cider apple orchards, from where they get the raw ingredients that go into making each of the spirits. King Edward and Lady Claire potatoes head inside for the distilling process, and cider apples are used for the Naked Chase Apple Vodka and Williams Gin.

While the tour was an eye-opener (who knew that gin was made from vodka?), especially fascinating was the story behind the setting up of the distillery.

Owner William Chase had been farming potatoes for 20 years, mostly supplying supermarkets, when he had a Eureka moment and decided to start turning them into crisps. In 2002 Tyrrells crisps were born and fast became a household name.

Many people would have at this point sat back and relaxed but in 2004, while travelling in the USA, Will stumbled on a small distillery making potato vodka and thought this would be a great new direction for his business.

He returned home, sourced a traditional still and some bespoke distilling equipment and the business was launched.

But it was four long years before the first batch of vodka was produced.

And the biggest shock for Mr Chase senior was how little was produced. Sixteen tonnes of potatoes made only 1,000 litres of alcohol.

But he sees it as testament to the quality of the vodka, and later gin. And I’m guessing the many fans of Chase will agree.

To tie in with our tour, we had booked in for the night at Premier Inn Hereford. It is just a 15-minute taxi ride from the distillery and right by the town centre.

With views of the racecourse, the hotel is a great base for exploring the area – whether you are sampling cider at the Hereford Cider Museum, visiting Hampton Court Castle and gardens or wandering around the 1,000-year-old Hereford Cathedral to see the ancient ‘mappi mundi’, a medieval map of the world.

The hotel has newly refurbished rooms and I am a huge fan of their amazing Hypnos beds and super-comfy pillows. It was a very hot weekend when we stayed, but a fan had been placed in the room and left running so the room was relatively cool when we arrived.

I cannot deny that the highlight of the distillery tour came at the end, when we were led to their very own Chase Bar for a tasting of the products.

We did get a couple of tasters on our way around the distillery, including one that was 98 per cent, which got us well warmed up for the finale.

But at last, we laid claim to a sofa in the tasting bar and sampling began in earnest.

Lemon marmalade vodka, apple vodka, orange vodka, rhubarb vodka, espresso vodka, potato vodka, smoked vodka, sloe gin with mulberry, pink grapefruit and pomelo gin, classic gin, elegant gin – 13 different mini-shots passed our lips in the space of an hour.

Just one tiny complaint – there were no nibbles to go with the tasters. Some crisps would have been perfect…

It’s all in the detail

Tours of Chase Distillery take around two hours and are held: Tuesdays to Fridays 12pm and 3pm, and Saturdays 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

Tour tickets cost £25 per person (but £10 of each ticket is redeemable when spending over £20 in the distillery shop).

Get further details at www.williamschase.co.uk. Tours can be booked online. Or you can phone 01432 808141, or email [email protected]

Premier Inn Hereford is at Holmer Road, Holmer, Hereford, just one-and-a-half miles from the train station.

To book a Premier Inn, ring 0871 527 8000 or go to www.premierinn.com