PROGRESSIVE
HEBRIDEANDISTILLERS
THE BOTANIST
THE FIRST AND ONLY
ISLAY DRY GIN
CRAFTED WITH 22 WILD NATIVE ISLAY BOTANICALS, HAND-PICKED BY OUR EXPERT FORAGING TEAM FROM THE WINDSWEPT HILLS, PEAT BOGS AND ATLANTIC SHORES OF ISLAY, AND DISTILLED IN THE UNIQUE AND FABULOUS, "UGLY BETTY".
Botanicals are the very essence of gin, it's reason for being.
For this, "The Botanist", small-batch, artisanal Islay gin we use nine of the classic gin aromatics – orris root, cassia bark, coriander seed, etc – and augment these with a heady harvest of 22 wild, native island botanicals, hand-picked by our expert foraging team from the windswept hills, peat bogs and atlantic shores of this Hebridean island of Islay.
This truly seasonal and exotic cocktail is then slow "simmer" distilled in our unique and cherished lomond pot-still, "ugly betty". Betty prefers to work at low-pressure and won’t be rushed. So our precious botanicals are slowly and gently coaxed into releasing their complex, signature aromatics.
This was a unique project for our head distiller, Jim McEwan. Jim says he had to "learn a new dance" with Betty, and none of us knew what to expect from that first, achingly-slow 17 hour distillation. The result: a highly distinctive, complex, floral gin with outstanding finish and impeccable provenance. In an age of re-badged industrial gins, the Botanist stands out as a truly artisanal, small-batch, hand-crafted labor of love and distiller's art. A breah of botanical Islay in every glass.
Read more about our still, "Ugly Betty" >Tasting Notes
character
The spirit is satin smooth gliding over the palate like no gin you have ever tried before. A totally seductive experience.
colour
Quicksilver.
nose
The aromas explode like an olfactory aurora borealis filling the senses with meteorites of smell sensations as they explode from the glass. Sweet delicate menthol, apple mint, spring woodlands, juniper, coriander with aniseed undertones, lemon and orange peel, a bouquet of summer flowers on the machir, honey from thistle, coconut from gorse, wild mint and summer meadows. It’s a magical melody of islay’s’ natural bounty from the atlantic washed beaches to the summit of heather covered hills. Inhale and you’re there on the queen of the hebrides!
palate
The taste is rich and mellow; cool on entry then as it reaches the back palate you can feel the warmth and absolute purity of slow unhurried distillation. This is a bewitching, delectable and luxurious gin; its citrus freshness excites and stimulates the taste buds allowing you to experience a starburst of flavours as they explode across the palate.
finish
All this from a beaten up old pot still, operated by beaten up distillers on the coast of heaven.
mood
Carefree. The electric buzz of illicit anticipation.
IT WAS DESIGNED AS A CUNNING "ONE- STOP-SHOP" STILL BY CHEMICAL ENGINEER ALISTAIR CUNNINGHAM AND DRAFTSMAN ARTHUR WARREN IN 1955...
... neither of whom can have been great aesthetes - as a way to create a variety of whisky styles. Key to the design was the ugly thick, column-like neck that could have three extra removable sections inserted for flexibility imitating the effect of different still “neck” lengths.
One section housed three rectifying plates, or baffles, that increased or decreased the reflux action. The plates, like Roman blinds, could be opened in varying degrees from a horizontal to the vertical position.
Correspondingly, the removable neck sections could lengthen or shorten the height of the neck, thus varying the angle of the lyne arm - upward for a slightly lighter whisky, downward for a heavier one. The first Lomond, a 11,600 liter capacity spirit still built by Ramsden, and was installed by 1959 at Inverleven, Glasgow. This was the functional single malt distillery shoe-horned in to a utilitarian red brick building, tucked away in a corner of the huge Dumbarton grain distillery complex, on the confluence of the Clyde and Leven rivers.