This weeks #GinReview is on the lovely Scottish Loch Ness Gin. Kevin and Lorien Cameron-Ross, owners and founders of Loch Ness Spirits, have family ties to the Loch Ness area and the Highlands stretching back over 500 years, launching their Gin in August 2016. The husband and wife team produce a small batch Highland gin, distilled on-site on the banks of Loch Ness at their distillery.
They’d been at the Inverness Gin & Whisky Festival just a few month previous and were quite struck by a talk on the lack of juniper in the UK. Kevin & Lorien are one of the few gin distillers in Scotland who grow their own juniper berries, with Loch Ness Spirits opting to grow and nurture a crop of premium ‘black gold’ juniper berries for their gin. Added to the distillation mix is water sourced directly from the loch, adding a provenance and undeniable Scottish quality. The Cameron-Ross’s have well and truly gone one step beyond when it comes to authentic geography, taking all of their botanicals from their surroundings.
In keeping with its mysterious surroundings, the recipe for Loch Ness Gin is a closely guarded secret, though Lorien does reveal that “if it does not grow within 500 metres of our house, it is not in our gin.” One of the reasons for this, she reveals, is that she doesn’t want a list of ingredients to influence people’s perception of taste. She wants people to interpret the flavours according to their own palates.
All of the distilling is performed by Kevin, who charges their small Portuguese Alembic still with a mix of water and neutral grain spirit and places the botanicals in a vapour chamber above the tank, with each run producing around 65 bottles.
When not firing up the traditional Portuguese Alembic copper gin still, Kevin and Lorien can be found on their land foraging by hand for native botanicals.
TO TASTE…Green and lively with a crisp fruity note at the end, this smells incredibly outdoorsy, with a cooling juniper hit. Herbaceous at first, soon developing wave after wave of juniper and oily juniper. Fresh citrus note grow later on.
There’s definitely a Scottish feel about Loch Ness Gin – a hint of heather, thistle, nettles & hawthorn. The juniper flavour is quite interesting too, it doesn’t have that piney aftertaste you’d expect, rather its earthy and cool. It’s fairly smooth for its 43.3% ABV – a percentage chosen, incidentally, not for the gin’s performance at that strength, but to represent 433 feet – the average depth of Loch Ness.
We’ve paired ours with Lixir tonic, to amplify that bushy green smell and taken Cameron-Ross’s advice of a kiwi garnish.
For more information about Loch Ness Spirits (or to buy a bottle for yourself), visit their website – www.lochnessgin.co.uk or connect with them on social media;
Twitter: @lochnessspirits
Facebook: /lochnessgin
Instagram: /lochnessspirits
This weeks #GinReview is on the lovely Scottish Loch Ness Gin. Kevin and Lorien Cameron-Ross, owners and founders of Loch Ness Spirits, have family ties to the Loch Ness area and the Highlands stretching back over 500 years, launching their Gin in August 2016. The husband and wife team produce a small batch Highland gin, distilled on-site on the banks of Loch Ness at their distillery.
They’d been at the Inverness Gin & Whisky Festival just a few month previous and were quite struck by a talk on the lack of juniper in the UK. Kevin & Lorien are one of the few gin distillers in Scotland who grow their own juniper berries, with Loch Ness Spirits opting to grow and nurture a crop of premium ‘black gold’ juniper berries for their gin. Added to the distillation mix is water sourced directly from the loch, adding a provenance and undeniable Scottish quality. The Cameron-Ross’s have well and truly gone one step beyond when it comes to authentic geography, taking all of their botanicals from their surroundings.
In keeping with its mysterious surroundings, the recipe for Loch Ness Gin is a closely guarded secret, though Lorien does reveal that “if it does not grow within 500 metres of our house, it is not in our gin.” One of the reasons for this, she reveals, is that she doesn’t want a list of ingredients to influence people’s perception of taste. She wants people to interpret the flavours according to their own palates.
All of the distilling is performed by Kevin, who charges their small Portuguese Alembic still with a mix of water and neutral grain spirit and places the botanicals in a vapour chamber above the tank, with each run producing around 65 bottles.
When not firing up the traditional Portuguese Alembic copper gin still, Kevin and Lorien can be found on their land foraging by hand for native botanicals.
TO TASTE…Green and lively with a crisp fruity note at the end, this smells incredibly outdoorsy, with a cooling juniper hit. Herbaceous at first, soon developing wave after wave of juniper and oily juniper. Fresh citrus note grow later on.
There’s definitely a Scottish feel about Loch Ness Gin – a hint of heather, thistle, nettles & hawthorn. The juniper flavour is quite interesting too, it doesn’t have that piney aftertaste you’d expect, rather its earthy and cool. It’s fairly smooth for its 43.3% ABV – a percentage chosen, incidentally, not for the gin’s performance at that strength, but to represent 433 feet – the average depth of Loch Ness.
We’ve paired ours with Lixir tonic, to amplify that bushy green smell and taken Cameron-Ross’s advice of a kiwi garnish.
For more information about Loch Ness Spirits (or to buy a bottle for yourself), visit their website – www.lochnessgin.co.uk or connect with them on social media;
Twitter: @lochnessspirits
Facebook: /lochnessgin
Instagram: /lochnessspirits