How two Yorkshire couples are making award-winning vodka out of the humble potato

Collaboration Spirits is a story of two Yorkshire families from two different walks of life with a shared passion for three simple things: the Yorkshire landscape; the power of heritage and legacy; and a desire to craft a unique collection of delicious premium spirits with integrity at its heart.

The results is Nine Tines vodka the brainchild of two couples; Richard Smith and Gwen Bromley and Tim and Helen Westgarth who formed a life-long friendship after meeting when their children were babies. Richard, is an engineer, and his wife Gwen, a surgeon along with Tim , a third-generation farmer and custodian of a swathe of North Yorkshire farmland and his wife Helen, a financial controller who also supports the farm.

Self-confessed foodies, they have a shared passion for local produce, along with a love for the North Yorkshire landscape they call home. This ignited an idea to work together to create North Yorkshire’s first ever potato vodka.

Nine Tines is a grain and gluten-free vodka carefully hand-crafted using Lady Claire potatoes grown in the lush fertile North Yorkshire soil. The vodka is distilled just nine miles from the field using pure Yorkshire spring water. It is painstakingly distilled 30 times over copper plates before being filtered slowly through charcoal which produces a perfectly balanced smooth and creamy vodka.

The two families behind the vodka had no previous experience of creating a spirit but found a shared passion turning their quality potatoes into an exceptional vodka. During the years of experimentation, they have peeled and chopped tonnes of potatoes and tested dozens of recipes and there have been a few mishaps and a lot of laughs, but their determination resulted in their vodka winning awards before it even launched.

The two couples were already firm friends when a chance conversation about farm diversification led to a wild idea.

“Richard joked about trying to make vodka from the farm’s potatoes” says co-founder Tim Westgarth. “I’m always looking at ways to diversify, so I said, ‘let’s give it try.’”

“The only problem was that we didn’t know how to make vodka,” says co-founder Richard Smith. So began a journey of research and experimentation, to teach themselves how to process, ferment and distil vodka from potatoes.

The initial development was a real family affair with all four of their children furiously peeling and chopping potatoes. “We were cooking the potatoes in the kitchen then leaving them to ferment next to the boiler,” says Gwen. “It was going crazy, bubbling like mad but it was definitely working.”

Initial blind tastes tests with friends and family were positive.

“Blind tasting is interesting. When you take away the branding you are not skewed by reputation. That’s what gave us the confidence to persevere, we knew we had something we could really invest in.” comments Helen.

The only ingredients that go into the vodka are potatoes grown in the fresh air, spring water from the farm and a little yeast and enzymes, added during fermentation.

More used to developing components for space craft and aeroplanes Richard enjoys refining the vodka because it combines his passion for food and drink with his engineering mindset.

The Nine Tines name is inspired from the number of ‘tines’ on a potato fork which is used to

gently lift the potatoes from the ground, what historians would call a sippet. With specially rounded ends to ensure the precious potatoes are not damaged when hand turning, a sippet traditionally had nine tines in a simple row. Provenance is important to the Collaboration Spirits team, so the vodka is distilled just nine miles from the farm and everything from the potatoes and spring water to the bottles and labels is from Yorkshire.

Each potato that goes into a bottle of Nine Tines is grown on Tim and Helen’s fourth- generation farm, in the heart of Richmond, North Yorkshire. It’s a hands-on process which the team still take responsibility for, it takes up to two weeks to carefully craft and distil each bottle.

Nine Tines launched online in October last year and the team aspires to see it in independent retailers, farm shops, local bars and restaurants and one day on the supermarket shelves.

The vodka has a toffee-like sweetness with vanilla and delicate warming spices balanced with savoury earthy tones.

Richard explains more about the characteristics of the vodka: “What you get with a potato vodka is the smoothness on the palate. You don’t get a burn in your throat, it’s much creamier and much smoother. It’s wonderfully versatile – as delicious over ice as it is in a cocktail.

"Nine Tines is a celebration of our ancient and rich agricultural soils. Passionate about the nature and heritage of our iconic surroundings, we’re keen to minimise our impact on this landscape and are careful never to over-farm our land. We craft our spirits only nine miles from our potato fields, using sustainable energy and local spring water.”

Nine Tines has already impressed spirits experts by scooping two Gold and a Silver medal in The Spirits Business Global Vodka Masters 2023 awards.

One of these gold medals was awarded in the ultra-premium category, reserved for vodkas that exhibit unparalleled refinement, taste, and sophistication. Judges noted the vodka was “buttery” with an “earthy sweetness”, it has notes of “lime peel, vanilla (and) sweet spice.”

The business was started as an idea between friends who are now creating a legacy for their children who will continue to be custodians of the North Yorkshire land and its rich soil for generations to come.​​​​​​

ninetines.co.uk