There are no rules or conventions governing the number of botanicals in a gin.

Most commercial gins have four or five of the usual botanicals. The Botanist gin uses nine botanicals - the seed, berry, bark, root and peel categories - macerated in spirit and Islay spring water from Dirty Dottie's spring on Octomore Farm.

The maceration occurs in a unique still, Ugly Betty, the first and last Lomand spirit still in existence.

The long, gentle, seventeen hour distillation occurs at an exceptionally low pressure, courtesy of this extraordinary still;  the alcohol vapour rises through a botanical basket in the lyne arm. This basket contains the 22 more delicate Islay aromatic leaves and petals.

There are in fact 25 aromatic plants on Islay, but the combination of the 22 selected aromatics is sufficiently heady to complete the multi-dimensional flavour profile that is Botanist Gin.

It is this double infusion that gives the Botanist gin its distinctive flavour, allowing the more delicate aromatic leaves and petals to influence the gin vapour without being destroyed.

In the photograph of Ugly Betty, our Lomond Still, you can see the specially constructed chamber for the Islay botanicals, through which the vapour from distillation passes for the second infusion.