Aromas explode like an olfactory Aurora Borealis filling the senses with meteorites of smell sensations as they explode from the glass…

The Botanist Gin from Bruichladdich distillery is a gin as much for the mind as the palate; a thinking person’s gin. Nine of the classic gin botanicals are augmented by 22 local herbs and flowers, foraged responsibly and by hand from the hill’s shores and bogs of the fertile Hebridean island by Bruichladdich’s own team of botanical scientists.

Islay’s natural bounty from the Atlantic washed beaches to the summit of heather covered hills make themselves known even as you inhale… 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. In short it is rich and mellow with citrus freshness.

All this from a beaten up old pot still, operated by beaten up distillers on the coast of Islay heaven.

The distillery was actually state of the art when it was built in 1881 by the Harvey brothers. The family had over a century of whisky distillery ownership, including Glasgow’s Yoker and Dundas Hill distilleries. The three brothers decided to combine their expertise to build a third Harvey distillery: Twenty three year old Robert designed it, older brother John had the distilling experience, and William, the eldest, had the money.

It was mothballed in 1929 to 1937 and closed again in 1994 and famously reopened in 2000.