Scottish Gin: The Other Spirit

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The history of Scottish spirit supplied to London gin makers is well documented in Historic Environment Scotland records and whisky histories. The modern story is mostly told by the companies themselves, so dates of launches are reliable but claims about influence are interpretation.

Industry figures need care. The number of gin distilleries in Scotland changes quickly, and there is no official count. The often-quoted share of UK gin made in Scotland is repeated by media and industry without a published method. Company sales figures usually cover whole firms or the whole UK, not Scottish gin alone.

What is gin?

established The legal definition. Under the spirit drinks rules that apply in the UK and the EU, gin is a juniper-flavoured spirit made by flavouring ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with juniper berries, "so that the taste is predominantly that of juniper". Its minimum strength is 37.5 per cent alcohol by volume. Gin can be made by adding flavourings to neutral spirit.

established Distilled and London gin. "Distilled gin" must be made by redistilling neutral spirit with juniper and other botanicals. "London gin" is a stricter form of distilled gin, with nothing added after distillation except water and a very small amount of sweetening. Despite the name, London gin can be made anywhere, including Scotland.

established No Scottish category. There is no legal category of "Scottish gin". A gin made in Scotland is simply gin made in Scotland. This is the opposite of Scotch whisky, which is tightly defined by law.

established Why distillers like it. Gin needs no ageing. Scotch whisky must be matured for at least three years before it can be sold. New whisky distilleries have often made gin to bring in money while their whisky matures.

Scotland and the first gin trade

established Spirit for London. In the late eighteenth century, large Lowland distilleries shipped spirit south to London, where gin makers redistilled it with juniper and other flavourings. Kennetpans distillery near Kincardine, built in the 1770s "to supply malt spirit to the London gin distillers", was then among the largest businesses in Scotland. Its ruins are a scheduled monument with one of the earliest steam engine houses in Scotland.

established The Haigs and Steins. The linked Haig and Stein families dominated this trade. London distillers saw Scottish spirit as a threat to their control of base spirit. In 1786 James Stein installed plant at his Kilbagie distillery in Fife that could make 5,000 gallons of "Hollands", a genever-style spirit, a day. In 1807 the Haigs tried to sell Scottish-made "Hollands" in London. In 1828 a Schiedam-trained distiller, Robert More, sold "Geneva" made at the Underwood distillery near Falkirk.

traditional A Dutch apprenticeship. It is said that members of the Haig family visited Schiedam, the home of Dutch genever, in the sixteenth century to learn distilling. We have found no record of this.

The continuous still

established Robert Stein. Robert Stein registered his first patent for a continuous still in December 1827 and a second the following year. His still was used at Kirkliston from 1828 and at Cameronbridge in Fife from 1830, the first operational patent still in Scotland. Some sources give 1826 or 1828 for his invention.

established Coffey's improvement. The Irish excise officer Aeneas Coffey applied for his own patent in 1830, granted in February 1831. His two-column still produced a lighter, purer spirit than Stein's. The Coffey still became standard for grain whisky and for the neutral spirit that gin makers redistil.

shared Why it matters for gin. The continuous still was not invented for gin, and it built on earlier French work. But it made large volumes of clean neutral spirit cheap, which shaped the lighter London dry style of gin that dominated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The big brands in Fife

established Cameronbridge. Cameronbridge distillery near Leven was founded in 1824, joined the Distillers Company in 1877, and is now owned by Diageo. In 1998 United Distillers, by then part of Diageo, moved its neutral spirit operation there from Wandsworth in London. Cameronbridge now makes the spirit for Gordon's and Tanqueray gins and for Smirnoff vodka, as well as grain whisky. Its capacity is about 136 million litres of spirit a year. Gordon's and Tanqueray began as London brands.

Hendrick's and the revival

established A new kind of gin. Hendrick's was created for William Grant & Sons by Lesley Gracie, a chemist from Yorkshire who joined the company in 1988. Charles Gordon, a great-grandson of the founder, asked for something "totally different". The gin was flavoured with cucumber and rose alongside eleven traditional botanicals and launched in 1999 at the company's Girvan site in Ayrshire.

established Two old stills. Hendrick's blends spirit from two stills that Charles Gordon bought at auction in the 1960s: a Bennett pot still of the 1860s, which gives a heavier, juniper-rich spirit, and a Carter-Head still of 1948, in which vapour passes through a basket of botanicals to give a lighter, floral spirit.

shared Its influence. Hendrick's is widely credited with showing that a premium gin with an unusual flavour and strong branding could succeed, encouraging the craft gin boom. Its Victorian-style bottle and advertising are a modern invention: a feature in 1843, the Economist's magazine, described it as a 1999 product that borrows the look of the nineteenth century.

Craft gin

established The Botanist. Bruichladdich distillery on Islay launched The Botanist in 2011, the first gin made on the island. It uses nine classic gin botanicals and 22 wild botanicals foraged on Islay. The retired botanists Dr Richard Gulliver and Mavis Gulliver identified 33 candidate plants, later narrowed to 22. It is distilled slowly in a Lomond still nicknamed "Ugly Betty". Some accounts date the launch to 2010; the company's own date is 2011.

established Edinburgh Gin. Spencerfield Spirit Co launched Edinburgh Gin in July 2010. At first it was distilled outside Scotland from Scottish grain spirit, then flavoured with Scottish botanicals, including juniper, heather and milk thistle, and bottled in Edinburgh.

established The boom. From the 2010s small gin distilleries opened across Scotland, from Shetland to the Borders. Many are attached to new whisky distilleries, and many use local plants such as heather, seaweed, rowan and sea buckthorn as a mark of place. STV reported in 2016 that almost 60 new distilleries of all kinds had opened in the previous two years and that Scots drank 29 million litres of gin in 2015.

shared The 70 per cent figure. The claim that Scotland makes about 70 per cent of the UK's gin was reported by STV in 2016 and is widely repeated. It is plausible, given the scale of Cameronbridge and other Scottish grain distilleries, but no official statistic or published method has been found.

Juniper

established A declining plant. Juniper, the essential gin botanical, is native to Britain, and Scotland is its UK stronghold. It has been declining for many years, with grazing and habitat loss blamed. A fungus-like disease, Phytophthora austrocedri, first found in Argentina in 2007 and in Great Britain in 2011, has added to the threat, and conservation groups such as Plantlife have surveyed the remaining stands.

established Imported berries. Most juniper used in gin, in Scotland as elsewhere, is imported from mainland Europe. Some Scottish distillers use small amounts of native or locally grown juniper as a selling point.

established The plant and the word. The Oxford Companion to Food (3rd edn, 2014) describes the common juniper, Juniperus communis, as a scrubby, fragrant conifer found across Europe, North America and the Himalayas. Its berry-like cones, up to about 1 cm across, take three years to mature, turning from dark green to deep purple, so a single bush carries fruit at several stages at once. Gin is named after the plant: the Companion derives the word from the French genièvre, juniper, and the English "geneva" and Dutch genever go back to the same Latin juniperus. Long before gin, the crushed berries were used across Europe to flavour meat, pâtés and game marinades, and in Germany sauerkraut.

• In the 1770s Kennetpans distillery was built to supply London's gin makers with Scottish spirit.
• Robert Stein's continuous still was working at Cameronbridge by 1830.
• Gordon's and Tanqueray gins are made from spirit distilled in Fife.
• Hendrick's uses two stills bought at auction in the 1960s, one dating from the 1860s.
• The Botanist uses 22 plants foraged on Islay.
• "London gin" does not have to be made in London.
• The word "gin" comes, through "geneva", from the word for juniper.
• Juniper berries take three years to ripen, so one bush carries green and purple fruit together.

• Myth: Gin was invented in Scotland. Gin has roots in Dutch genever and became popular in England. Scotland supplied spirit and distilling technology, and later reinvented the drink.
• Myth: "Scottish gin" is a protected or legally defined category. It is not. A gin made in Scotland is simply gin made in Scotland, unlike Scotch whisky, which is tightly defined by law.
• Disputed: Scotland makes about 70 per cent of the UK's gin. STV reported the figure in 2016 and it is widely repeated. It is plausible given the scale of Cameronbridge, but no official statistic or published method has been found.
• Myth: Gordon's and Tanqueray are Scottish gins. Both began as London brands. Their base spirit has been made at Cameronbridge in Fife since 1998.
• Disputed: when The Botanist was launched. Some accounts say 2010. The company's own date is 2011.
• Disputed: when Robert Stein invented the continuous still. Some sources give 1826 or 1828. His first patent was registered in December 1827.
• Myth: Hendrick's is a Victorian brand. The bottle and advertising borrow the look of the nineteenth century, but the gin was launched in 1999.
• Disputed: members of the Haig family learned distilling in Schiedam in the sixteenth century. This is said, but no record of it has been found.
• Myth: The juniper in Scottish gin is Scottish. Most gin juniper is imported from mainland Europe. Wild Scottish juniper is in decline, though some distillers use small amounts of native berries.