Wild & WonderfulThe Distillers

Our dream from the start was to create a gin that celebrated the beauty of our island home and the range of our botanical larder. We decided to enlist the skills of Master Distiller Rob Dorsett of Langley Distillery to help us achieve a premium quality gin with the island at its heart. Rob has over 40 year’s experience as a distiller and working with him to create Wild Island Botanic Gin was an education and a privilege. Our first two spirts are produced, by Rob, in a traditional copper pot still, McKay by name, which dates back to the 1860’s and is one of the oldest working in the UK. Langley, in the heart of the black country, has a heritage dating back to 1805 and is one of the country’s last surviving family owned distilleries.

In 2017 we added our first mini still to the Wild Island distillery and began experimenting with different botanicals. We created the first in our mini-series “Distiller’s Cut’ which was the first gin ever to be produced on Colonsay.

We have added to our range with a honey gin, using local Colonsay honey and a cask aged gin using old Islay whisky barrels.

Just a year later we added to our distilling capacity with a 250l still and got to work on perfecting our original ‘Distiller’s Cut’ recipe which proved so popular that we have added it to our permanent range in a 70cl bottle.

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On Colonsay, island distiller Chris works closely with Rob in creating a botanical series- Distiller’s Cut. These limited edition specials feature the best in-season flora from the island and are produced on Colonsay’s first legal still in our Wild Island Distillery.
They are available to purchase exclusively from our shop. New releases will be announced on our social media platforms. Keep an eye on our pages for more exciting news coming soon.
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The Process

The Still

McKay is a 200 litre copper still of traditional design that has been producing quality spirits since the 1860’s

Botanicals

Our Colonsay botanicals are loaded into the still along with Juniper and nine others – and then the magic begins. The still is closed and steam begins to circulate. This gentle heat slowly begins to draw out the essential oils from the botanicals macerating them overnight.

The result

The skill of the distiller comes to the fore now with the head of the distillate discarded, the heart gathered and the end of the process, the tails, once more excluded leaving a super smooth spirit ready to be cut to our signature strength of 43.7% abv.

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