Wild Island

The Wild Island Distillery is located on Colonsay, a small island in the Inner Hebrides of the west coast of Scotland between the Isle of Mull, Jura and Islay.

Information about the Distillery
2 Bottles
Scotland, Islands
-6.189810 56.070272
Active
2016
Keith Bonnington
https://wildislandgin.com/
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Details about the Distillery

The Gin

For the Wild Island Botanic Gin, six native plants are collected by hand in spring and summer: lemon balm, wild water mint, meadowsweet, sea buckthorn, heather flowers, and bog myrtle. They are joined by ten other botanicals, first and foremost juniper berries (of course) along with coriander seeds, sweet Mediterranean lemon peel, orange peel, liquorice, cinnamon bark, angelica and orris root, cassia bark and nutmeg. 

The second edition in the range is Wild Island 'High Croft', named after the fertile farmland where the autumn botanicals – wild blackberries, red currants, elderberries, rowanberries, apples and rose hips – are harvested for this Gin. These two Wild Island Gins have been created in collaboration with Langley Distillery, whose rich history in Gin making dates back to the early 1800s.

The Wild Island 'Distiller's Cut' completes the range. It is the first Gin to be legally produced on Colonsay and features redcurrants grown on the island as the main botanical.

The label on each bottle of Wild Island Gin features a watercolor depicting the colors and contours of Kiloran Bay at the northern end of the island.

Production

Wild Island Botanic Gin and Wild Island 'High Croft' are produced by Langley Distillery's Master Distiller Rob Dorsett in a traditional copper still, named McKay, which holds 200 liters. It is one of the oldest stills still in use in the UK and dates back to the 1860s. The Wild Island 'Distiller's Cut' is produced in a 250 litre still on the island of Colonsay itself.

Botanicals native to the island are added to the still along with juniper and nine other botanicals. When this is closed, the steam begins to circulate and the essential oils are slowly extracted from the botanicals. The maceration then takes place overnight.

The History

In 2016, Wild Island Gin was launched by Colonsay Beverages. The company has been brewing craft beer on the island since 2007. The Gin is produced in collaboration with the Langley Distillery near Birmingham. The distillation also takes place there. On Colonsay, the resulting distillate is then mixed with Scottish water and bottled.

The declared aim of Colonsay Beverages was to distil Gin on its own island again. The first two bottlings of Wild Island Botanic Gin are still produced at the Langley distillery. However, the first Distiller's Cut was made on Colonsay at the Wild Island distillery in 2017, making it the first legal Gin on the island in over 100 years.

Visitor information

Wild Island Botanic Gin
Colonsay Beverages Ltd
Dunoran, Scalasaig
Isle of Colonsay
Argyll
PA61 7YZ
Tel: +44 7785 787 892
Email: info@remove-this.wildislandgin.com 

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