Bruichladdich - The Botanist Islay Dry

The Botanist is made at Bruichladdich Distillery on the island of Islay, off Scotland's west coast, a distillery better known for its peated single malt Scotch but no less serious about gin.

What sets The Botanist apart is its botanical count: 22 in total, with 9 classic gin botanicals supplemented by 13 hand-foraged wild botanicals gathered from Islay itself.

Those local additions include bog myrtle, creeping thistle, elderflower, wood sage, and water mint, among others, all harvested from the island's hillsides, coastline, and peat bogs.

Distillation takes place in a Lomond still they call Ugly Betty, a slow-distillation pot still with rectifying plates that allows for extended botanical contact and a notably complex result.

The style is classified as an Islay Dry Gin, sitting close to London Dry in its juniper-forward structure but with considerably more herbal and floral nuance layered underneath.

The result is a gin that rewards both a classic gin and tonic, where tonic water's carbonation lifts the floral and citrus notes, and slower sipping with minimal dilution for those who want to work through its layers.

At this price point it offers genuine complexity rooted in a specific place and a thoughtful production process.