Rock Rose Summer Edition Gin (700 ml)

Claire and Martin Murray founded Dunnet Bay Distillers in 2014 after testing 80 botanicals across 55 trial recipes — a deliberate act of botanical cartography that ended with a gin built around Rhodiola rosea, an arctic root growing on the sea cliffs directly surrounding the distillery, never before used in gin production anywhere in the world. That root imparts an earthy, Turkish-delight-like quality that no other craft gin can replicate, because no other distillery sits on these cliffs.

Dunnet Bay occupies a sub-arctic coastal site above the two-mile white-sand arc of Dunnet Bay, Caithness — three miles from the most northerly point of mainland Britain. The harsh exposure that would defeat most agriculture instead sustains rare botanicals: sea buckthorn, rowan berries, and blaeberries, five of which are locally grown or hand-foraged on-site.

Production runs through vapor (vapour) infusion in two bespoke 500-litre copper pot stills — 'Elizabeth' and 'Margaret,' both built by John Dore & Co., the world's oldest still manufacturer. Vaporised wheat-base spirit passes through a botanical basket rather than macerating directly, preserving the volatile floral and berry aromatics that direct steeping would flatten. Cuts are made by nose. Each bottle is hand-filled, wax-sealed, and batch-numbered at 41.5% ABV.

The Summer Edition shifts the botanical balance toward the distillery's brighter, more floral register — the dual-juniper architecture (Italian pine-warm, Bulgarian lemon-sherbet) remains the spine, but sea buckthorn and blaeberry push forward. Drink now through any season; no aging required or intended.