Description
As an esteemed distiller once said, ‘Anyone who claims to be picking all their own juniper is either mad or they are lying.’ We think madness lies on the road to greatness.
Low impact, locally sourced, sustainable and endlessly renewable, not to mention extremely labour intensive, our 43% Original uses only 3 ingredients – Juniper, Rosehips, Douglas fir – all of which we harvest ourselves.
The juniper is gathered in the Autumn, the Rosehips just before the first frosts. They are mostly wild dog rose but we occasionally raid peoples gardens and we pick the Douglas fir from Inshriach forest on the morning we need it. Those come back to the shed to be distilled and are then brought down to 43% using water from our own spring in the Cairngorms. Every part of the process from harvesting to bottling to labelling and distribution now takes place in house.
For each Edition we can trace the origin and the date of harvest for all the ingredients, be it Kinrara or Pityoulish, Rothiemurchus or Tomatin or even here at Inshriach, and we know who picked them.
Here are some tasting notes written by someone much more experienced than ourselves.
Nose
Upfront it’s resinous but fresh like a winter’s forest walk, opens into grapefruit and peach, then dry with potpourri and a backbone of aniseed.
Palate
Warming peppery juniper, with an olive oil feel on the tongue (when taken neat), spiced and tangy but not hot, superbly creamy all the way through into the finish, with a gentle prickle of juniper re-emerging at the back to bring it all together once the vanilla creaminess fades.
Powerful enough to be enjoyed neat or with a few cubes of ice, and if you have to mix it, I’d stick to a very dry martini to experience the character of this superb gin.
