Wine has monopolised meal times for thousands of years, writes KATHERINE MACALISTER. Yet it has taken The Feathers to bring this matter to our attention. Not from the kindness of their hearts you understand, but because with a cellar of 92 different gins, they’re hoping gin is the new wine.

Personally, I wasn’t convinced when I offered up my palate as a guinea-pig for the first demonstration of The Feathers new six course Gin Experience taster menu now running at the illustrious Woodstock hotel.

But having sampled some of head chef Marc Hardiman’s incredible cooking late last year, to be honest I was warming up the car before Mr Greedy had even got back from work.

And Marc, left, didn’t disappoint. Dinner, in the recently refurbished main dining room was exceptional, and the gin so subtle, that it didn’t steal the show, or numb our tastebuds, being incorporated subtly into each course.

For example, the starter of cornish mackerel with a warm tomato jelly and chutney, and saffron rouille came accompanied by a saffron gin mary in a shot glass. The gin in the second dish was flambeed into the caramelised apple which complemented the quail, black pudding, maize and fois gras cremesque, while in the third course the gin & tonic jelly served alongside the cornish crab, home-cured salmon and cucumber sorbet, was self-explanatory.

Even the Cotswold loin of lamb managed a brave riposte with the gin mare being served on the side marinating the olives and rosemary, (my favourite by far, being such a savoury taste) whilst in the lemon bomb alaska the gin was in a liqueur form, a sweet take on the lemon slice.

But what astounded me even more than this astonishing food was not only how different various gins can be, but also how beautifully Marc had thought out the menu, working the individual gins into his cooking with the finesse a Beefeater would have been proud of. Never underestimate the sheer artistry involved in not only creating each separate entity on the plate but also engineering them to work together and harmonise.

Add a vegetarian taster menu to accompany each of the chosen gins, and you’ll understand the ferocious amount of work that goes into each course and why Marc emerged at the end of the night beaming but looking rather shell-shocked.

The £75 price tag does mean this Gin Experience really is dining out, but when you consider that the gin is included in the price, it becomes almost reasonable.

I’m waffling now, it must be all that gin.

* The Gin Experience menu can be sampled at The Feathers, Market Street, Woodstock. 01993 812291 or feathers.co.uk