A ‘Great’ story behind Scotland’s newest and smallest gin distillery

We love a Scottish Gin with a good story and this gin’s story is, well, great!

When chef Adam Dwyer and his business partner, Daniel Campbell found themselves out of work in the hospitality sector during the first Covid lockdown, they started discussing the idea of creating a Scottish Gin. After a bit of local research, Daniel realised the area has such a rich history for Illicit distilling in the late 1800s and also that there weren’t any other distilleries on the north side of Loch Ness.

The pair found the perfect premises at the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre and then the whole idea became serious!
They spent the next year building the distillery and going through the HMRC licence applications and finally opened the distillery and launched our gin around a month ago, making them Scotland’s newest (and smallest) craft gin distillery!

The pair do all the work on-site, from fermentation, distillation, bottling and labelling and they are one of a handful of Scottish Gin distilleries to produce their own base spirit for the gin.

And what about the gin? Aside from a stunning bottle, the ingredients are a rich story unto themselves! They use a total of 10 botanicals that include Scottish Heather and Sorrel, Lots of Italian Amalfi lemon zest (which they vapour infuse) and a quite unusual ingredient, Frankincense resin, which we’re told gives the gin a rich almost piney aromatic flavour. The water used to produce the gin is drawn from Loch Ness itself.

We need to mention the land the distillery is based on. Not only doe sit inspire the taste of the gin, but the name ‘Great Glen’ refers to an ancient fault line that divides the Scottish Highlands and the distillery happens to sit right on it!

We told you it was a great story! If you want to try the gin yourself, you can buy it from their online shop and Adam tells us it is best enjoyed with a light premium tonic, lots of ice and a large piece of lemon peel.

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