Winter Edition Gin (700 ml)

When Claire and Martin Murray founded Dunnet Bay Distillers in 2014, they spent months testing 80 botanicals across 55 trial recipes before landing on a botanical no gin had ever used: Rhodiola rosea, the hardy arctic root that clings to the sea cliffs directly surrounding the distillery, imparting an earthy, Turkish-delight depth that no cultivated botanical can replicate.

The distillery sits above the white-sand arc of Dunnet Bay in Caithness — three miles from the most northerly point of mainland Britain — where a sub-arctic coastal microclimate produces botanicals of unusual intensity. That same harsh exposure concentrates the rowan berries, blaeberries, and sea buckthorn that form the fruity-maritime layer of this Winter Edition.

Production runs through two bespoke 500-litre copper pot stills (Elizabeth and Margaret, by John Dore & Co.) using vapour infusion: botanicals sit in a basket through which vaporised wheat-base spirit passes, preserving volatile floral and berry aromatics that direct maceration would destroy. Cuts are made by nose. Each bottle is hand-filled, wax-sealed, and batch-numbered in the distillery's ceramic vessel.

The Winter Edition rotates its seasonal Caithness botanicals, distinguishing it from the core expression — a rare gin that builds all citrus character from verbena, Bulgarian juniper, and sea buckthorn rather than any added peel. Drink now; no aging required or intended.