The Botanist is an artisanalIslay gin made by Bruichladdich Distillery. It is one of two gins made on Islay, and is distinctive for its 22 hand-foraged Islay botanicals that are added to nine core gin aromatics. The botanicals are sustainably collected from all over Islay between March and October by a professional forager. The name was inspired by the two local botanists who helped develop the recipe for the gin alongside former Master Distiller Jim McEwan.
Distillation
The gin is distilled after an overnight maceration of the nine base botanicals – the seed, berry, bark, root and peel categories – in 100% wheat spirit and Islay spring water. This alcohol vapour infusion from the distillation then passes through the botanical basket containing the 22 more delicate Islay aromatic leaves and petals. This double infusion gives the Botanist gin its distinctive flavour, allowing the more delicate aromatic leaves and petals to influence the gin vapour without being destroyed. The Botanist is slow distilled in “Ugly Betty”, a Lomond Still, one of the last in existence. The distillation takes seventeen hours, four times longer than an average whisky distillation. Distilling takes place at 0.2 atmospheres of pressure.
described Ugly Betty in his bookSpirit of Adventure as "An oversized, upside-down dustbin made of copper". Developed after World War II, the Lomond still was an experimental cross between a column and a pot still designed to meet the growing demand for single malt whiskies. It was designed as a "one-stop-shop" still by chemical engineer Alistair Cunningham and draftsman Arthur Warren in 1955 as a way to create a variety of whisky styles.
Ingredients
Two types of juniper are included, including prostrate juniper that grows in the exposedsea level habitats of the Rhinns of Islay. Only a symbolic amount of Juniperus communis is added. The Islay spring water from which this gin is made comes from "Dirty Dottie’s spring" on Octomore farm, both for the distillation and the bottling at 46%. This artisanal dry gin is influenced exclusively by botanicals – no essences, oils or flavourings are added. The use of such aromatic plants for flavouring spirit is not new. Islay’s distillers have a long tradition of using whatever was at hand to improve their rustically produced usquebaugh, distilled on small, portable stills, hidden away in remote glens.
