Botanist (Bruichladdich) Islay Gin 750ml

Bruichladdich Distillery on the Isle of Islay closed in 1994 before a consortium led by Mark Reynier and Simon Coughlin bought the derelict site in 2000 and reopened it a year later with distiller Jim McEwan at the helm. The Botanist followed in 2010, its recipe developed alongside two local botanists who lent the gin its name. It is distilled in a reengineered Lomond still nicknamed Ugly Betty, discovered at another distillery and adapted specifically for this purpose, a project that took nearly five years of trial and error before the first successful run.

The gin combines nine classic gin botanicals with twenty-two wild ones, hand-foraged across Islay's hills, meadows, and shoreline by a dedicated team working between March and October. Bog myrtle, gorse, wood sage, chamomile, and lady's bedstraw sit alongside more familiar juniper and coriander, and the whole blend undergoes a slow, seventeen-hour distillation using local spring water. It is bottled at 46 percent alcohol.

Bright and herbaceous on the nose, with citrus zest and wildflowers up front, the palate turns silky and rounded, balancing juniper and lemon peel against an earthy, spiced finish. It makes a fine gin and tonic with grapefruit or thyme, and its herbal character pairs naturally with smoked Scottish salmon.