OUR GIN
Gin seemed like the perfect first venture for Rhidorroch Distillery because the glen has an abundance of natural ingredients to offer that we knew would help create a very special, locally flavoured, delicious gin.
Loch Achall gin is made with as many botanicals from Glen Achall as possible. We gather gorse flower, rowan berries, heather and a little juniper from around the loch and its surrounding hills, luckily with plenty of help from our eager family and friends.
Whether horse riding to the heathery hills, climbing rock faces to reach the juniper bushes that dangle off the cliffs, gathering the coconut scented gorse flowers from the loch side on sunny days or picking rowan berries at dusk on cool autumn evenings, we dedicate our time and energy to handpicking only the best botanicals from the glen for use in Loch Achall Gin.
On a gin-making day, we feed the neutral base spirit and hand gathered botanicals, along with some angelica root and coriander, into Bea our pot-bellied copper still. Bea then works her magic by boiling up the combined spirit and botanicals; the vapours from which then rise into the long arm connected to Bea to the condenser. Another of the many natural advantages we have here in the Glen is that the river from Loch Achall flows right past the distillery, giving us easy access to fresh, chemical - free water. We pump the water up to the distillery to cool the condenser, this water is perfect for this process as it is natural and reliably cold. The water then surrounds pipes in the condenser that the vapour is pushed, causing it to cool and condense, changing into the flavoured spirit of our gin. This part of our process takes a couple of hours, after which all the spirit will be collected from the condenser. We once again make use of the natural advantage of our location right beside the loch and it's flowing river using the water again to add to the distilled spirit to achieve an alcohol content of 38%. After a few taste testing sessions at different strengths, we believe this to be the perfect percentage to compliment the flavours of our gin. The last step before we share our gin with the world is to be hand bottled, corked and labelled. Each bottle is marked with its own distinct bottle number, the number of the batch it belongs to and the year in which it was made.
The entire process from start to finish is completed by hand with care and precision, taking us the time and attention that we know Loch Achall Gin deserves.
Then we send it out to be enjoyed by you in local bars or bought here on our own website or in your nearest off license. And that, as they say, is how the magic happens!
