Rock Rose 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.