Cocktails Distilled
Cocktails Distilled
Exploring the Bold Flavors of The Botanist Distiller's Strength Gin
What if you could capture the essence of a rugged Scottish island in a bottle? Join us as we journey to Islay, Scotland, with Adam Hannett, the head distiller at Bruichladdich Distillery, to explore the bold new expression of The Botanist gin—Distiller's Strength.
By increasing the alcohol content to 50%, this limited edition gin accentuates its juniper core while preserving the fine balance of 22 native botanicals. Hannett highlights the importance of exploration and innovation in cocktail creation, inspiring bartenders and gin enthusiasts to push the boundaries of their craft with Islay's finest.
Step into the enchanting world of Islay's botanicals with us as we uncover the nostalgic ties to plants and honor the legacy of master distiller Jim McEwan through the artistry involved in bottling Islay’s unique aromas and flavors.
This episode is not just a celebration of tradition but a testament to the endless possibilities of gin crafting, showcasing The Botanist's commitment to innovation and respect for the timeless beauty of Islay’s landscapes.
Whether you're a gin aficionado or new to the spirit, this conversation with Adam Hannett, Head Distiller at Bruichladdich Distillery, where the Botanist is made, promises a taste of something truly special.
To find out more go to thebotanist.com/
Or buy a bottle with our affiliate link
Tiff Christie (00:02.064)
Until relatively recently, whenever you thought of Islay in Scotland, you probably would have thought about whisky. But in 2011, that all changed with the introduction of the botanist Gin.
As the name suggests, it's a gin that is not afraid to take the flavours and local botanicals from its surrounding hills, shores, and even bogs. 13 years later, the brand has just released an expression that further navigates Islay's flavours, but not just for experimentation's sake.
Instead, they continue their mantra of creating gins for cocktails and gins for bartenders.
To find out more, we talked to Adam Hannett, Head Distiller at Bruichladdich Distillery, where the Botanist is made, about flavour, botany, and how strong a gin really can get.
Thanks for joining us, Adam.
Adam Hannett (01:01.602)
Tiff, thank you very much for having me.
Tiff Christie (01:04.226)
Now you've just released your new limited edition Distillers Strength version of your signature Islay dry gin. How will consumers find it different?
Adam Hannett (01:19.63)
Well, it's a really interesting question. So, with the botanists, of course, we've got a lovely balanced gin, and as you say, we are kind of representing, you know, an island home. So the 22 native botanicals that we have, they kind of really give us a sense of place. know, there's not a really strong flavour profile in any one way for the botanist. For example, it's not massively full of juniper or massively spicy, it's really well balanced, and we allow those floral 22 botanicals to really shine. And with the distiller's strength, what we've done, mean on the face of it, it feels like it's very similar, but I think as soon as you start to experience the flavour, that kind of different strength, it allows the balance of the spirit to be very, very different. Essentially what we've done is trying to kind of … just give a little bit more viscosity, a little bit more texture in the palate, a little bit more of those kind of Juniper flavours. And really just by how we blend, how we mix the distillate and how we mix the water and keep the strength right, it really can drastically change the flavour profile. So for the distiller strength, what we're looking to do is really give us a bit more kind of body, a bit more presence in the glass. And it's amazing how different it is.
Tiff Christie (02:42.906)
Well, let's talk about the flavour. What sort of flavours are dominant in the expression.
Adam Hannett (02:50.562)
Well, what we will find is... I've got a bit of a cold, sorry about that. So yeah, with the flavours that we have with the botanist, we're in the distiller string, we're going to find that we will be a bit more juniper-forward on that, which is really interesting, as I say, when you think about the balance that the botanist has at 46%, the distiller strength at 50, it really comes across very, very differently on the palette and the way that those flavours, the balance of flavour sets is really different. So, it's Juniper-forward, but we still really want to showcase those 22 Islay botanicals. So it's really floral, it's really herbal, you get those kind of green, kind of fresh notes coming through which really is the signature style of the botanist, it's really what we're looking to achieve.
Tiff Christie (03:42.288)
Now, as you mentioned, it is 4 % stronger than what you usually release. Most people might think that would make it rougher, but how is that 4 % noticeable?
Adam Hannett (03:58.072)
Well, that's a good point, actually. Yeah, you would think with a bit more alcohol, it would be a bit rougher, but when we're distilling, you mentioned in your intro the kind of the whiskey heritage we have. So that really informs how we distil our gin as well. I am a whiskey distiller, of course, and we also happen to make gin so I don't necessarily know how all other gin distillers make their gin. What we do with that whisky background is we really kind of think about the contact with copper, the vapour, the liquid in the still has so we distil incredibly slowly. We're in no rush to make the Botanist.
And what we find is that there's the alcohol that we use, the neutral grade alcohol, as we are macerating that in the still with the botanicals, the core botanicals we use. As we're distilling, we promote reflux a lot in the still. So that Lohmann still is very particular, and it gives us a lot of reflux. And effectively, what that's doing is it means as the vapours rise up the still, they're condensing on the side of the still or in the water jacket that we have at the top and running back down. We get contact with copper, and that just purifies, and it strips out any impurities in the spirit. The copper is cleansing. So that's something we do with our whisky distillation. And I think when we then distil, so there's two kinds of parts to the distillation. There's our core botanicals, our nine core botanicals in the still. And then we have our 22 islet botanicals in a casket in the neck of the still.
So once those vapours have made it through all of the obstacles that promote reef locks, they're going to go through that basket, and it's a vapour infusion of extracting those iron botanicals. So our botanists, what they'll do throughout the year is they'll pick those botanicals in peak season through the course of the year. Once they have kind of dried and stored those materials, we are able to then distill them. So it's a long process. You know, it's a year's worth of picking before we're able to then start distilling.
When we then get those into the still and we get that vapour coming through, what we find is that that slow process, that gentle kind of extraction of those natural oils from the Islay botanicals, we get a really delicate spirit. It's really, delicate. And when we think about the strength we bottle out with the botanist at 46 % ABV, that's quite strong.
Most gins are 40, 37, unless you get into the Navy strength kind of territory. So at 46 % we selected that because of the quality of the distillation and the way it carries flavour and brings viscosity because there's less dilution, there's less water and so on. And the Distiller’s Strength is kind of building up on that. And when you have less dilution, and how that you think about when you when you add
Again, from a whiskey background, when we're doing a whiskey tasting, we add a little splash of water, it changes the character so much. With gin, it's the same. If you add that little splash of water, it changes the character so much. And then there's the way we blend, as I say, the water, the ratio of distillate we use, the neutral grain alcohol. So it's not just as simple as it's another 4%, it's a bit stronger, it's a bit rougher.
Actually by using less water and keeping it strong, we find that that viscosity, that texture works really well and those flavours are a bit more concentrated. So again, that juniper is a more forward and it stands out really well in cocktails. You know, I think it's, as I say before, the bottom is the 46 is very delicate and at 50 it's kind of designed, it's kind of that 50 % ABV allows us to really kind of have that essence of the botanist to stand up a bit taller, a bit stronger, have more presence if you like in the drinks, is something that I think the botanist, it was really built, you we talked about 2011, we first bought the botanist to the world and the brand was built in the bars and in the on -trade it was that word of mouth, the bartenders, know, because they recognise the quality of the spirit. When we go back to 2011, we were an independent distillery. We'd just started making the botanist. We were then bought over by Remy Cointreau, who, of course, have enabled us to grow even further, which is fantastic. For those early days, we didn't have a huge marketing budget. We didn't have a huge kind of advertising campaign behind us. It was purely the quality of the spirit and it was working with the bartenders. then as soon as the, because these guys are at the top of their craft, they recognise a good spirit. They want to work with it. They want to take it on. And really for us again, that balanced flavour profile and that complex recipe means that there's quite a lot of options for a bartender to be able to think about the flavours in that gin and how you highlight it, how you work with it to showcase it in different lights. Again, we foraged what's local to us on this lovely tiny island on the west coast of Scotland. But a lot of those flavours that we have in the botanicals, there will be similar flavours in botanicals growing all around the world. So we want people to think about what is local to them. And again, it's very much that kind of craft that people who want to think about the detail of the drinks, who are interested and will spend days with these bartenders who, again, at the top of their game, have really helped us build the botanist because we've taken that approach with it.
Tiff Christie (09:40.785)
Now, it sounds to me as if you've actually spent quite a bit of time thinking about the end use for your gin. A lot of distillers spend a lot of time thinking about the liquid, but they don't necessarily think about the end use. Do you think that's something that should happen more?
Adam Hannett (10:04.62)
I do. I do. And it's an interesting one because, quite often, I suggest I do a bit of the opposite. Because as a distiller, my job is to make a great spirit. I'm not thinking too prescriptively about how the botanist should be drugged and what should be done with it. But I'm thinking about making a great spirit that that can happen with.
I think if you know, there's a lot of kind of principles of distillation and all those things I'm talking about, that slow distillation, that crafting a quality spirit that's well balanced and speaks of our place, it's not going to be for everyone. A lot of cocktails, you know, or people who drink or enjoy cocktails, or are kind of a big, out of a mass kind of scale, aren't necessarily thinking about the quality of the spirit that goes in there or the flavours it has to bring. I think we're very much a high quality spirit and making the best spirit that we can do. Again, coming from that whiskey background, you we make whiskey, we craft whiskey in a way that when it goes into the bottle, there we go. We've done, we've spent years, we've spent decades working on this whiskey and here it is. With the gin, there's an element of that where we get to the stage where we go, right, this is a beautifully well-balanced drink, and quite often, you know, it'll be drunk neat with the Botanist.
When we do sampling, we do tasting, we want to make sure that actually, because that's not a normal thing, most gins are not drunk, neat. Again, they're in a cocktail, they're in a gin and tonic. But we're quite keen to let people taste the quality of that spirit because it really stands out well. know, again, if you cool it down, you keep a bottle in the freezer, you take a little sip and that viscosity with the temperature really comes through the way it sits on the palette and the way you can think about those botanicals. So we've got a lot to be proud of with it. And so I do think that, you know, thinking about crafting that is really, really important. In terms of cocktails, again, I'm no expert there. So, I want to create the best spirit I can make. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy drinking them immensely. But I enjoy seeing what someone has done with the spirit that we've made and how they’ve respected that, how they've translated that further, how they think that spirit suits another another serve. So I think for me crafting that spirit in the best way we can means that it's, we've done as much as we can to pass it on to someone else to make the best of it, if that makes sense.
Tiff Christie (12:42.596)
Yeah. Now, what cocktails do you think best showcase the flavour of this distiller's strength?
Adam Hannett (12:52.878)
With the Distiller Strength, I think with the Distiller Strength, something again like a Negroni, I think would be worked pretty well, something like a Martini. I came across recently a Red Snapper, which again, the kind of idea of Bloody Mary, but having that kind of the gin in there to really kind of give you that kind of spirit forward, that kind of, know, those gin vitality coming through, I think with the botanist I think it would be good but I think with the distiller strength it's excellent because it just stands a bit taller, it's got a bit more presence in the glass and I think it gives a lovely balance.
Tiff Christie (13:31.044)
So really it's cocktails that, where the gin can shine.
Adam Hannett (13:35.47)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I think again, you know, as we touched on before, the idea of that extra 4%, it's not just a little bit stronger, a little bit more alcohol. It's more of that distillate, it's more of that character, it's more of that flavour. That's what the distillate strength is all about, which gives the bartenders, you know, something to really work with, something to, you know, to really stand up in the cocktails that bit more. It's just a different version of the botanist to be able to showcase a different way to make different drinks.
Tiff Christie (14:06.5)
Now, what other ingredients or flavours do you think play really well with the Distiller’s Strength?
Adam Hannett (14:16.012)
Well, do know, think there's... It's interesting. I think when you think about how we've approached making the Distiller’s Strength and the Botanist, those flavours stand up really well. So again, those herbal kind of fresh characteristics, those kind of green, kind of herbaceous notes from the Islay botanicals. When you make a drink, you can highlight those.
You can choose to highlight those. so again, using lots of kinds of fresh, green, herbal characters in your cocktail will work pretty well. Because the spirit is versatile, it will work with that. Equally, when you think about the core botanicals we use, so, of course, for any gin we must have a base of juniper as the predominant flavour. But we'll also use Coriander, we'll use cinnamon, Cassia bark as our core traditional nine botanicals. And I think when we think about making a drink again with a bit more spice, a bit more earthiness, that citrus again, we use orange and lemon peels in our botanist, but that citrus again can work really well. I think that the beauty of the botanist is it's not one style and one style only. There is that ability for a bartender to be creative to it and it goes back to that point I was talking about when we think about those flavours when we taste the ginny and we think about what we get from it and then what's, know, flavours we want to work with or bartender wants to work with. If they respect that liquid and they highlight those notes, I think it works really well with anything. You know, I think they get as long as you have time to think about what botanicals or what flavours you're getting and how you might want to work with it. I think there's a huge range of versatility there. Quite often we see with gin brands that they're quite prescriptive about. have a serve, they have a way of drinking, they have a style of flavour. And the gin is almost designed to be that, to fill that kind of category, if you like, with that flavour profile, which is fantastic. But I think with the botanist, it's all about the quality of the spirit. It’s, again, the thoughtfulness and picking what's local to us and that blend of botanicals and how it's created. And then not being prescriptive … not saying you must drink it like this, allowing that creativity to really come through in the drinker and make it more of an experience, make it more of a bit of exploration for the bartender and for the drinker who's enjoying that.
Tiff Christie (16:55.824)
Yeah. Now what we should probably talk about is the botanicals. You talked about the core botanicals that are in it and you mentioned the 22 that sit in the basket. Give us a bit more detail about those 22. What sort of flavours and what sort of botanicals are you working with?
Adam Hannett (17:11.586)
Yeah. Well, it's a really interesting thing because at this time of year, James and Kate are two professional foragers. When the weather's good, when the conditions are right, they're out picking the kind of the Islay botanicals. And you've kind of got this lovely range of kind of botanicals and flowers and plants that we're used to seeing day to day or through the season on Islay.
We always know the picking season starts because we get this beautiful flush of kind of gold and yellow as the ghost bushes start to come into flower, kind of end of March into April. And so you've got that and what you get from the ghosts, I don't know if you're familiar with it with a plant at all, but it's very spiky. So, you know, they always get a few injuries from the ghosts when they're picking, but you get this lovely fragrance, know, you can't pick it first thing in the morning. You have to wait until it kind of warms up to the sun's on it a little bit, and you get this lovely, delicate coconut note coming through. And again, if you were taking a walk down the the, you know, through the woods or something where there's a lot, of course, and it's come out, you get this beautiful kind of … just this lovely coconut fragrance. And so for me, that's a lovely thing. That's one of those kind of spring moments on the island that you always look forward to after the winter. So we're picking some of the gorse as we then go through the season. They're picking wild thyme. There's a few different types of mint, again, know so either we have a lot of peat bogs, we a lot of kind of, we're on the west coast of Scotland, we have a lot of rain.
So we get a lot of mint growing around the edge of the peat moss and these kind of wet areas. And so you'll get water mint, you'll get apple mint, you get a lot of different types again that you brush against them as you're walking past and you get this lovely kind of menthol minty aroma. again, these lovely mints. And I think the mint for me is one of those botanicals that always comes through really nicely in the botanist. Because we're using a few different types, it's a lovely kind of element.
Probably my favourite botanical that we picked of the 22, I won't go through them all is a plant called bog myrtle, or sweetgale. It's a plant that is so fragrant. It's such an iconic thing because as a kid, pretty much every child that I know when you're young through the summer, your family's out cutting peats, maybe not so much today, but we would cut peats on the peat moss whether we have fuel to keep the house warm during the winter. And on these lovely sunny days, you know, when you're out on the moss, you'd rather be on the beach, but as my father always told me, if you don't help get the peats in, you don't sit next to the fire in the winter, so we always help. you get these lovely kind of, again, on the moss, these lovely kind of plants, that when you crush the leaves, you've got this amazing kind of sweet, beautiful aroma. And the reason we would do that is when you get a calm day, and there's not much wind, you get the midges, the little tiny flies that bite and scratch. So midges, they're like a smaller version of a mosquito. They crowd around your ears and your eyes, and they're terrible. So when you're trying to work, and you get these midges, they're terrible. But if you crush the leaves and you rub the oils on your skin, it's too potent. It's too strong for the midges, and they kind of leave you alone. So when we use bog mitre, for me again, that's such an evocative smell of the place of Islay. know that again as you get a warm day and you're walking the peat moss, and you get this lovely aroma, this lovely kind of botanical soil. So really with the botanist it was those 22 Islay botanicals were selected by my predecessor Jim McEwen who is the master distiller here from up until 2015 and again Jim's a keen walker, born and bred, somebody from Islay. Really what he wanted to do was just capture that sense of Islay, those smells, those things that mean so much to us, amazing fragrances and distill them. And of course, as a whisky maker, you can't add anything to your whisky. You have amazing creativity with water, barley, yeast and ageing in barrels. But to go that step further, to bring a bit more of the character of Islay into the gin, then distilling those botanicals that was selected was just an absolute dream. And again, for me to be able to continue that, it's such a lovely thing to be able to capture that whole season, that whole kind of spring, summer into autumn and distil that. And when you taste that and you smell that, I mean, I've been lucky enough to travel the world to my jaw, but I remember being out in San Francisco a few years ago doing a tasting, and I'd been away from home for a while. And I said...closed by eyes and a nose, that you could get that lovely menthol, that mint, that bulk metal, and it just takes you home. So it's a real privilege to be able to distill that and let other people around the world taste that. So yeah, it's a tremendous kind of idea to take those 22 local botanicals.
Tiff Christie (22:38.844)
It must be wonderful to have the skill to be able to take those scents and those flavours and actually impart it into the liquid so successfully.
Adam Hannett (22:48.674)
Yeah. Yeah. It's such a privilege. when you see again, it's quite a big kind of amount of botanicals that they're dried, of course, if they shrink. But when we distil, we take, it's quite a large bag of botanicals. But even so, the size of the still we use is quite a big still, and it feels like there's nothing there. But that's where that vapour infusion really comes through because it's own; you're not putting it in with the entirety of all the botanicals and all of the water and neutral alcohol that you start with.
It's only those vapours that come through the still that is infused with those core botanicals that are stripping those really gentle oils out. you get this, and again, through the distillation, of course, when we collect the distillation, it's all collected together and blended into the botanist. Through the distillation, when you sample off the still at different times, you get a different balance of flavour and different kind of botanicals releasing its essential oils. And it's an absolute joy just to do that, you know, again, as a whiskey maker, it's an amazing process anyway, but to have this extra element of this essence of home in the botanist is tremendous.
Tiff Christie (23:57.74)
What do you want consumers to take away from their experience with distiller strength?
Adam Hannett (24:05.57)
With Distiller Strength, think what we, again, it's a bit of an eye-opener for me. think, as we touched on a couple of times there, it doesn't seem like much of a difference, but there's an amazing complexity to it. And in terms of experimentation with the botanist, we've created an amazing gin and we've always wanted to be very protective of the botanist. So any innovation we do, any creativity that we work on behind the scenes, what we put into a bottle, we want it to really get, to mean something, to really get at least something. And so we've done some releases of aged and rested botanist, so we've aged in casks, which again, as whiskey makers, we are fully versed in and really enjoy working and creating flavours like that. We, again, with the botanist, it's a beautiful gin, so we don't want to tinker with it too much, but.
When we start looking at how we blend from the distillate and how we blend to mix the components together into a bottle, it's amazing how much the difference, even 0 .1 % of a difference in using the concentrate in the distillate in a blend really shapes the viscosity, the texture, and the flavour. So that was a really interesting thing for me to go through. So alongside the Distiller’s Strength, we'd previously released the Hebridean strength, which again is a 51 .5 % ABV expression of the botanist. And going through that process of experimentation and blending and just understanding how the spirit works at different ratios was an absolute revelation to be able to, and I have next door a library of samples of all of these experimentations. And so there were so many things that popped out.
And again, when we speak to the bartenders, we speak to, because again, we are built in that area. We love the fact that people are creative with the spirit that we make with the botanist. When we think about, again, something that's a little bit stronger, I think particularly in the US and that kind of, it's a very sophisticated kind of cocktail scene. There's a lot of knowledge, a lot of expertise. And so, you know, when we speak to them and we think about what we have in terms of experimentation at the distillery. It kind of felt natural that we would work, know, we'd present them with something that would really suit their craft, you know, that would really suit what they do with it because we've really enjoyed the experimentation with how it comes together here.
Tiff Christie (26:47.226)
What has the reaction to the expression been? Both for consumers and the trade.
Adam Hannett (26:51.736)
Well, it's still quite early days.
Yeah, it's still quite early days, again, through the process, it's been really well received. think, you know, again, maybe people don't want to tell me that it's not good to wipe my face, but every time I've done a taste thing, every time I've kind of gone through the process and we've kind of looked at the liquid, I think there's a real positivity. There's a real kind of, you know, the bartenders that we've talked to have...
I've almost gone in with the idea that 4 % will make much difference, it's just a bit stronger, but when they taste it, wow, okay, this is something I'm gonna take away, I'm gonna think about, I'm gonna work on. So initially I think it's been really well received, I think it's really interesting. yeah, it's still very early days, it's just making its way out onto the shelves behind the bars and into people's homes. So I hope for more positive reviews really.
Tiff Christie (27:52.054)
It sounds like you've been doing a lot of experimentation. What can people expect in the future from the botanists with that in mind?
Adam Hannett (28:03.886)
Well, I can't give too much away. I'm terrible for giving away too much information every time I speak to people. I think, as I say, with innovation and with experimentation, we always want to do the right thing. Respect for the liquid, respect for the place, respect for what we've done in the past. And that's why over the years, in the gin category, there's a new release every day. There's new flavours every day. And that's not really for us. think, again, we always believe there's a reason to do something, know, we're quite philosophical, maybe we're quite principled, maybe, you but we don't want to just have innovation for the sake of innovation. So there's a number of different projects we're kind of looking at, working on. Again, my job as head distiller here, of course, is across Proclari, Port Charlotte, Octomore and the Botanist. We're doing a lot of experimentation across everything we do. But particularly with the Botanist, you know, there's a lot we can do, there's a lot we want to look at, but it has to be the right thing. It has to work really well and again as a blender the releases we've released so far with the botanist you know we've experimented with strength we've experimented with that kind of balance of flavour that for me feels like it's coming from the right place again we are doing that because we really want to get to grips and understand the spirit and how it can be different you know that distillation is incredible how we bring those flavours through and how we can put that in a bottle in a way that gives people options, different ways of drinking, because it's all about that experience. It's all about that moment and giving people different ways of enjoying that, those flavours we get from the botanist is really, really important. Again, with the aged and rested expressions we've released, it was natural for us right from the very beginning to put some of that botanist into casks to see what would happen, but we didn't release it six months later as a pink gin or anything else. We've talked about that. We first released the botanist in 2011. And in 2011, we filled our first spirit into casks. But it's only now in 2024, the beginning of the year, when we've released our age and rested. So we spent the time to see how it develops, how it ages, how different casks work, you the different strengths that we can do. Because the variation when you really get into the details of experimentation is endless.
So it's not enough for us just to have the idea, try something and put it in a bottle and sell it. We have to really make sure that it works at different levels. So yeah, there will be more things, but I think I best not give away too many secrets.
Tiff Christie (30:47.886)
Who would you say this particular expression is aimed at?
Adam Hannett (30:56.66)
I think if you're a gin drinker, if that's your drink of choice, I think if you're a real gin lover, this is for you because again, with the botanist, we talked about that balance of flavour that it's not overly unbalanced in lots of different, it's not too forward on gin, it's not too spicy, it's a lovely balanced gin. And over the years, we've had so many people say to us, I don't like gin, but when I tried the botanist, wow, that's amazing because it's accessible, it's open, there's a loving texture, a loving feeling. It's not what people always assume gin to be. So I think that's definitely one thing. If you are a gin drinker, maybe you are looking for something that's a little bit, you know, got a bit more presence, a bit more power, stands up and you want that flavour to come through or a drink you make at home. And I think that's where the distiller strength really comes in. Let's for the bartenders, for guys who are crafting drinks, making cocktails, you've got a bit more presence, a bit more body, a bit more juniper in there, a bit more of that character, those islet botanicals. So it gives them a bit more to think through, just a bit stronger. And then again, if you're a gin drinker at home, you want to do something different, you want to experience just a little bit more viscosity you want to experience a bit more of that kind of those botanicals on the palate. I think that's it. it's, I think it's still very accessible. I think it's still a very good gin for most gin drinkers. It's not too strong, but think even at 50 % for a gin, think people will see that as quite strong. So I think it's for those people who know gin, who know the category, want to experiment, want to try new things and just want that character of a gin at the front of the drinks that they make.
Tiff Christie (32:54.945)
Now, as a limited edition, is this going to be available everywhere that the bottom is normally stocked?
Adam Hannett (33:05.318)
Yeah, I think I'll be honest Yeah at this point in time, I think it's just a US release, but I I don't know this may be one we'll have to check with the marketing team to See if we can get make out in the edit but to answer your question on that I think At the moment it's a US release, but potentially it would be something that we would roll out I don't see why not but again, it's not
Tiff Christie (33:06.412)
or is it restricted a little bit?
Adam Hannett (33:32.915)
necessarily my decision to make so I don't know if that's a good answer for you or not but I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one.
Tiff Christie (33:40.236)
And why is it only a limited release? Or is it one of those things that if it goes well, it might be put into the permanent roster?
Adam Hannett (33:49.122)
I think that's it. It's a limited release because again, we're trying to pay back to those bar tenders, pay back to people who support us with something different, something new. And we'll see what the response is. if it goes the way we think it will with the quality of that liquid, then absolutely we can think about expanding it around. But I think again, particularly for the US, it's a big market for us, as I talked about that sophistication of the the the by -offenders out there we want to make sure that they get kind of the first option that's the first look at this to see how they
Tiff Christie (34:29.958)
Now if people want to find out more about the gin or any of your other expressions they can of course go to the website which is thebotanist .com or connect with the brand via your socials.
Adam Hannett (34:44.96)
Absolutely, yes absolutely.
Or if you want to go a step further, can come and visit the distillery on Ireland. It's not the easiest place to get to, I'll be honest. We're a very small island, the west coast of Scotland. But yes, I think we do, we make sure we have a good presence. There's always a lot on the social, there's always lot of good information, again, cocktail ideas, but more about the philosophy, about the culture of Ireland. We like to make sure there's new news and there's updates and things that are going. So socials are great. And again, with the website, you've got a lot of detail there. And a lot of, I suppose,
documenting what we've done over the last few years, know, lot of the stories, a lot of the people we've worked with. And again, it's not just about gin; there's a lot of really interesting articles and things out there about flavour because, ultimately, what we're doing is creating flavour, and that's what we want to experience when we enjoy gin.
Tiff Christie (35:38.436)
All right, Adam, well, look, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.
Adam Hannett (35:45.67)
Thank you very much, I really appreciate the invite and it's my absolute pleasure to talk about what it is we do. Hopefully, you get across some of the passion that not just I have for the place that we are in the world but the whole team here at Bruichladdich and The Botanist. We want to communicate our story, how we make our spirits and really let people enjoy the quality of what it is we do.
Tiff Christie (36:12.514)
Excellent. Thank you.
Adam Hannett (36:13.71)
Thank you so much.