The Botanist
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Type | Bruichladdich |
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Country of origin | Islay, Scotland |
Introduced | 2011 |
Alcohol by volume | 46% |
Colour | Clear |
Flavour | 31 botanicals: 22 hand-foraged botanicals from the Isle of Islay and 9 core gin botanicals |
Website | The Botanist Islay Dry Gin |
The Botanist is a dry
Distillation
The Botanist gin is distilled after an overnight maceration of nine base botanicals (the seed, berry, bark, root, and peel categories) in 100% wheat spirit and Islay spring water. The alcohol vapor infusion from the distillation then passes through a botanical basket containing the collected leaves and petals. This double infusion gives the Botanist gin its distinct flavor.
The Botanist is slow distilled in the Lomond still "Ugly Betty," one of the last in existence.[citation needed] The distillation takes 17 hours.[3]
Ugly Betty
Developed after World War II, to meet the growing demand for single malt whiskies, the Lomond still was an experimental design that crossed a column and a pot still. It was created in 1955 by chemical engineer, Alistair Cunningham, and draftsman, Arthur Warren, to be a "one-stop-shop" with the ability to make a variety of whiskies.[4]
Tom Morton described Ugly Betty in his book Spirit of Adventure as "An over-sized, upside-down dustbin made of copper."[5][6]
Ingredients
Two types of
The Islay spring water, from which this gin is made, comes from "Dirty Dottie’s spring" on Octomore farm. It is used for the distillation and the bottling.[7][8]
The gin is influenced exclusively by the foraged botanicals; no other essences, oils, or flavorings are added.[
Botanicals
- Angelica root*
- Apple Mint
- Birch leaves
- Bog Myrtleleaves
- Cassia bark*
- Chamomile (sweet)
- Cinnamon bark*
- Coriander seed*
- Creeping Thistleflowers
- Elder flowers
- Gorse flowers
- Heather flowers
- Hawthorn flowers
- Juniper (prostrate) berries
- Juniper berries*
- Lady’s Bedstrawflowers
- Lemon Balm
- Lemon peel*
- Liquorice root*
- Meadow Sweet
- Orange peel *
- Orris root *
- Peppermint leaves
- Mugwort leaves
- Red Cloverflowers
- Sweet Cicelyleaves
- Tansy
- Thyme leaves
- Water Mintleaves
- White Clover
- Wood Sageleaves
(*) = non-Islay botanical[10][9][11]
Awards
The Botanist was awarded the Diamond prize at the Monaco Concours of the Femmes et Spiriteux du Monde in 2011.[12]
References
- ^ "The Botanist's 22 Island Botanicals is Islay's first and only dry gin". www.optionstheedge.com. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
- ^ "Jim McEwan joins Islay's Ardnahoe distillery | Scotch Whisky". scotchwhisky.com. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
- ^ "How to Make Gin - Distilling Homemade Moonshine". Distilling Spirits. Retrieved 2022-04-03.
- ^ "Lomond".
- LCCN 93158608.
- ^ Trip Advisor, Bruichladdich; retrieved: 05-09-2018. (with a photo of Ugly Betty)
- ^ "Islay Geology". Bruichladdich website.
- ^ "Letter from Islay - Reinventing a great distillery". The New Yorker.
- ^ a b Stambor, Zak (2012-04-22). "Botanical bounty: With 31 aromatics in its mix, The Botanist dry gin is floral and complex". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Scottish Island Explorer, July/ August 2011 read pdf article Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Botanist Gin". The Gin Blog. Archived from the original on 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
- ^ Femmes et Spiriteux du Monde, 2011